24 CiCEBO Delivees bome feom the Conspibatobs.
LECTURE ХСШ.
The reader of Cicero’s works will remember that he frequently
mentions the day of the complete dissolution of the conspiracy,
and will be surprised at the manner in which he speaks of it
in the oration for P. Sextius1, where he asks what would have
been the consequence, if the conspiracy had been discovered
later, and if Catiline had had time during the winter to throw
himself into the mountains. This is strange ; for every one
knows that Cicero describes the nonae Hlae Décembres, as the
day of his triumph; and surely the winter in Etruria has
CommencedinDeeember. Buttliisarises from the irregularities
in the calendar. Caesar once went into winter quarters in
February. The events followed one another very rapidly;
which we cannot wonder at, for the most important occurrences
may happen in the course of a few weeks.
Catiline had joined C. Manlius in Etruria. Cicero had taken
the most excellent precautions. Q. .Metellus Celer, who was
with an army in Picenum, in the neighbourhood of Rimini,
marched towards the northern foot of the Apennines, to seize
the passes of Faesulae, by which Catiline intended to hasten to
Gaul. Cicero, with wonderful skill, kept Antonius, who like-
wise commanded an army, away from the conspirators, and
paralysed him, by giving up to him various advantages which
he might have claimed for himself, such as the presidency at
the elections, and the like; and as Antonius was ill, the com-
mand against Catiline was undertaken by his lieutenant
M. Pctreius. As Mctellus had occupied the road from Etruria
to Gaul, Catiline was compelled to accept a battle. He fell as
he had lived, an able soldier : his men fought like lions, and
died like the soldiers of Spartacus.
Thus ended the consulship of Cicero. The gratitude of his
country, which he had so truly deserved, instead of being
lasting, was only momentary, and was followed by hostility
and malice. The contemplation of such a state of things is
one of the saddest in human life. It is natural that an eminent
man should demand acknowledgment: for as truly as it is the
will of nature that we should not lie, so also it is her will that
ɪ c. 5.
CICERO’S SENSIBILITY.
25
we should honour noble acts and acknowledge them. Plato
says, “ the last garment which a pure man puts off is the love
of fame,” and if he does put it off, he is in a dangerous way.
I have once said in my public life, that I consider too slight a
love of fame, that is of true and immortal fame, as one of the
greatest dangers in our lives : but where that love does exist,
I apprehend nothing. When I contemplate the disease of our
time, I perceive with pain, that there are very few who strive
after immortal fame: that wretched and unsatisfactory life
which is confined to the present moment, leads to no good.
The poems of Count Platen, the first among our poetical
geniuses, offend many readers by the frequent appearance of
the poet’s painful desire to be honoured and acknowledged.
An actual saint, such as Vincent de Paula, would not experi-
ence any painful feeling at not being duly appreciated, but his
is a different sphere. If an extraordinary mind can always be
active, he will not be much concerned about being honoured
or not honoured ; if, however, it is his destiny not to command
over bodies, but over minds, he will be much more easily
wounded by the want of appreciation. Cicero was a man of a
curious, we may almost say, of a morbid sensibility to any
affront: envy and hostility were ruinous to him. It was a
misfortune for him that he endeavoured to counteract the want
of appreciation on the part of his fellow-citizens, by coming
forward and shewing what he was, sometimes doing so by way
of reproach, sometimes by argument. Persons who have
themselves displayed their vanity in the pettiest affairs of their
little native places have censured Cicero for his vanity, and have
written upon it in a a very edifying manner. It always grieves me
to hear such expressions, which we meet with even among the
ancients ; for I love Cicero as if I had known him, and I judge of
him as I would of a near relation who had committed a
folly. On one occasion he felt much hurt by the indifference
which Pompey shewed towards him. Cicero seems to have
seen little of Pompey before he went to Asia; for Pompey
was constantly absent from Eome, and Cicero was always at
home. It can have been only during Pompey’s first consulship
that the two men came in close contact with each other; and
the question is, how far their acquaintance had the character
of a real friendship. Cicero was aedile elect in the year in
which Pompey was consul. When Pompey had gained his