The Life of Cicero, vol 1 | Page 4

Cincian law,[7] and tells us that we are taught
by Cicero's letters not to trust Cicero's words when he was in a boasting
vein. What has the one thing to do with the other? He names no quiet
evasions. Mr. Collins makes a surmise, by which the character of
Cicero for honesty is impugned--without evidence. The anonymous
biographer altogether misinterprets Cicero. Mr. Froude charges Cicero
with anticipation of murder, grounding his charge on words which he
has not taken the trouble to understand. Cicero is accused on the
strength of his own private letters. It is because we have not the private
letters of other persons that they are not so accused. The courtesies of
the world exact, I will not say demand, certain deviations from
straightforward expression; and these are made most often in private
conversations and in private correspondence. Cicero complies with the
ways of the world; but his epistles are no longer private, and he is
therefore subjected to charges of falsehood. It is because Cicero's
letters, written altogether for privacy, have been found worthy to be

made public that such accusations have been made. When the injustice
of these critics strikes me, I almost wish that Cicero's letters had not
been preserved.
As I have referred to the evidence of those who have, in these latter
days, spoken against Cicero, I will endeavor to place before the reader
the testimony of his character which was given by writers, chiefly of
his own nation, who dealt with his name for the hundred and fifty years
after his death--from the time of Augustus down to that of Adrian--a
period much given to literature, in which the name of a politician and a
man of literature would assuredly be much discussed. Readers will see
in what language he was spoken of by those who came after him. I trust
they will believe that if I knew of testimony on the other side, of
records adverse to the man, I would give them. The first passage to
which I will allude does not bear Cicero's name; and it may be that I am
wrong in assuming honor to Cicero from a passage in poetry, itself so
famous, in which no direct allusion is made to himself. But the idea
that Virgil in the following lines refers to the manner in which Cicero
soothed the multitude who rose to destroy the theatre when the knights
took their front seats in accordance with Otho's law, does not originate
with me. I give the lines as translated by Dryden, with the original in a
note.[8]
"As when in tumults rise the ignoble crowd, Mad are their motions, and
their tongues are loud; And stones and brands in rattling volleys fly,
And all the rustic arms that fury can supply; If then some grave and
pious man appear, They hush their noise, and lend a listening ear; He
soothes with sober words their angry mood, And quenches their innate
desire of blood."
This, if it be not intended for a portrait of Cicero on that occasion,
exactly describes his position and his success. We have a fragment of
Cornelius Nepos, the biographer of the Augustan age, declaring that at
Cicero's death men had to doubt whether literature or the Republic had
lost the most.[9] Livy declared of him only, that he would be the best
writer of Latin prose who was most like to Cicero.[10] Velleius
Paterculus, who wrote in the time of Tiberius, speaks of Cicero's
achievements with the highest honor. "At this period," he says, "lived
Marcus Cicero, who owed everything to himself; a man of altogether a
new family, as distinguished for ability as he was for the purity of his

life."[11] Valerius Maximus quotes him as an example of a forgiving
character.[12] Perhaps the warmest praise ever given to him came from
the pen of Pliny the elder, from whose address to the memory of Cicero
I will quote only a few words, as I shall refer to it more at length when
speaking of his consulship. "Hail thou," says Pliny, "who first among
men was called the father of your country."[13] Martial, in one of his
distichs, tells the traveller that if he have but a book of Cicero's writing
he may fancy that he is travelling with Cicero himself.[14] Lucan, in
his bombastic verse, declares how Cicero dared to speak of peace in the
camp of Pharsalia. The reader may think that Cicero should have said
nothing of the kind, but Lucan mentions him with all honor.[15] Not
Tacitus, as I think, but some author whose essay De Oratoribus was
written about the time of Tacitus, and whose work has come to us with
the name of Tacitus, has told us of Cicero that he was a master of logic,