Misc Writings and Speeches, vol 1 | Page 6

thoughts and expressions which have afterwards been adopted in later productions.
No alteration whatever has been made from the form in which the author left the several articles, with the exception of some changes in punctuation, and the correction of one or two obvious misprints.
T.F.E. London, June 1860.

CONTENTS.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE.
Fragments of a Roman Tale. (June 1823.)
On the Royal Society of Literature. (June 1823.)
Scenes from "Athenian Revels." (January 1824.)
Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. I. Dante. (January 1824.)
Criticisms on the Principal Italian Writers. No. II. Petrarch. (April 1824.)
Some account of the Great Lawsuit between the Parishes of St Dennis and St George in the Water. (April 1824.)
A Conversation between Mr Abraham Cowley and Mr John Milton, touching the Great Civil War. (August 1824.)
On the Athenian Orators. (August 1824.)
A Prophetic Account of a Grand National Epic Poem, to be entitled "The Wellingtoniad," and to be Published A.D. 2824. (November 1824.)
On Mitford's History of Greece. (November 1824.)

MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS OF LORD MACAULAY.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNIGHT'S QUARTERLY MAGAZINE.
FRAGMENTS OF A ROMAN TALE.
(June 1823.)
It was an hour after noon. Ligarius was returning from the Campus Martius. He strolled through one of the streets which led to the Forum, settling his gown, and calculating the odds on the gladiators who were to fence at the approaching Saturnalia. While thus occupied, he overtook Flaminius, who, with a heavy step and a melancholy face, was sauntering in the same direction. The light-hearted young man plucked him by the sleeve.
"Good-day, Flaminius. Are you to be of Catiline's party this evening?"
"Not I."
"Why so? Your little Tarentine girl will break her heart."
"No matter. Catiline has the best cooks and the finest wine in Rome. There are charming women at his parties. But the twelve- line board and the dice-box pay for all. The Gods confound me if I did not lose two millions of sesterces last night. My villa at Tibur, and all the statues that my father the praetor brought from Ephesus, must go to the auctioneer. That is a high price, you will acknowledge, even for Phoenicopters, Chian, and Callinice."
"High indeed, by Pollux."
"And that is not the worst. I saw several of the leading senators this morning. Strange things are whispered in the higher political circles."
"The Gods confound the political circles. I have hated the name of politician ever since Sylla's proscription, when I was within a moment of having my throat cut by a politician, who took me for another politician. While there is a cask of Falernian in Campania, or a girl in the Suburra, I shall be too well employed to think on the subject."
"You will do well," said Flaminius gravely, "to bestow some little consideration upon it at present. Otherwise, I fear, you will soon renew your acquaintance with politicians, in a manner quite as unpleasant as that to which you allude."
"Averting Gods! what do you mean?"
"I will tell you. There are rumours of conspiracy. The order of things established by Lucius Sylla has excited the disgust of the people, and of a large party of the nobles. Some violent convulsion is expected."
"What is that to me? I suppose that they will hardly proscribe the vintners and gladiators, or pass a law compelling every citizen to take a wife."
"You do not understand. Catiline is supposed to be the author of the revolutionary schemes. You must have heard bold opinions at his table repeatedly."
"I never listen to any opinions upon such subjects, bold or timid."
"Look to it. Your name has been mentioned."
"Mine! good Gods! I call Heaven to witness that I never so much as mentioned Senate, Consul, or Comitia, in Catiline's house."
"Nobody suspects you of any participation in the inmost counsels of the party. But our great men surmise that you are among those whom he has bribed so high with beauty, or entangled so deeply in distress, that they are no longer their own masters. I shall never set foot within his threshold again. I have been solemnly warned by men who understand public affairs; and I advise you to be cautious."
The friends had now turned into the Forum, which was thronged with the gay and elegant youth of Rome. "I can tell you more," continued Flaminius; "somebody was remarking to the Consul yesterday how loosely a certain acquaintance of ours tied his girdle. 'Let him look to himself;' said Cicero, 'or the state may find a tighter girdle for his neck.'"
"Good Gods! who is it? You cannot surely mean"--
"There he is."
Flaminius pointed to a man who was pacing up and down the Forum at a little distance from them. He was in the prime of manhood. His personal advantages were extremely striking, and were displayed with an extravagant but not ungraceful foppery. His gown waved in loose folds; his long dark curls were dressed with exquisite art, and shone and steamed with odours;