his works.

Not that it is a despicable performance. The language is pure; the style not unpleasant. As a compilation from Aristotle and Hermogenes, set forth in classical Latin, and with a very good method, it may be perused with profit. But the manner is dry and barren; totally stripped of Cicero's copious exuberance. Cornificius, to whom it has generally been ascribed, or whoever was the author, appears rather in the form of a grammarian or logician, than of a rhetorician. Never in a single instance does he rise to that of an orator. Cornificius is always a precise, correct, cold schoolmaster; Cicero never ceases to be the eloquent speaker. Cornificius chills you, as he instructs; Cicero warms you, as he teaches. From Cornificius you may learn the theory of rhetoric; from Cicero you must learn by feeling the practice of the art.

I cannot conclude this account of the rhetorical writings of Cicero, without once more urging upon your attention all the works, as well as the life and character of this extraordinary man. When you have dilated your understanding to the full conception of his merit, you will learn from his history the process, by which it was acquired. He lived at the most eventful period,

recorded in the annals of the world, and contributed more, than any other man, to its splendor. In a republic, where it had been observed, that the distinction of ranks was more strongly marked, than in any other nation under the sun, he rose, on the sole foundation of personal merit, against all the influence and opposition of the proudest of all aristocracies, not only to the highest official honors and dignities, but to a distinction, never attained by any other mortal man. To be proclaimed by the voice of Rome, "free Rome," the father of his country.

Roma parentem,

Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem, libera dixit.

JUV. VIII.

Compared to this how mean and despicable were all the triumphs of Ceasar, "the world's great master and his own." How small, how diminutive is the ambition of that soul, which can be satisfied with a conquest of the world by force, or with a mastery over itself so partial, as to be only a composition with crime, a half-way forbearance from the extreme of guilt, compared with the sublime purposes of that mind, which, not by the brutal and foul contest of arms, but by the

soul-subduing power of eloquence and of virtue, conquers time, as well as space; not the world of one short lived generation, but the world of a hundred centuries; which masters, not only one nation of cotemporaries, but endless ages of civilized man, and undiscovered regions of the globe. These are the triumphs, which Ceasar, and men like Ceasar, never can obtain. They are reserved for more exalted conquerors. These are the palms of heroic peace. These are the everlasting laurels, destined for better uses, than to conceal the baldness of a Caesar, destined to be twined, as a never fading wreath, around the temples of Cicero.

As an orator, the concurring suffrage of two thousand years has given him a name above all other names, save only that of Demosthenes. As a rhetorician, we have seen, that he is unrivalled by the union of profound science with elegant taste; by the extent, the compass, the variety of the views, in which he has exhibited the theory of his favorite art; by that enchanting fascination, with which he allures the student into the deserted benches of the Grecian schools. His correspondence with Atticus and his other familiar friends contains the most authentic and interesting mate.

rials for the history of his age. His letters introduce you at once into his domestic intimacy, and to a familiar acquaintance with all the distinguished characters of an era, which seems to have spurned the usual boundaries of human existence; and destined in the memory of mankind to live forever. But those same letters are the most perfect models of epistolary style, that the world has ever seen; and such is the variety of the subjects, they embrace, that the student may find in them finished examples of the most perfect manner, in which a letter can be written, from the complimentary card of introduction to the dispatch, which details the destinies of empires.

His philosophical writings make us acquainted with the most celebrated speculations of antiquity upon those metaphysical topics, which, unless fixed by the everlasting pillars of divine revelation, will forever torture human reason, and elude human ingenuity. On the nature of the gods, on the boundaries of good and evil, on those moral paradoxes, which Milton has represented, as constituting at once the punishment and the solace of the fallen angels in Pandemonium, Cicero entertains us in lively language, dignified by judicious reflections, with all the eccentric vagaries of the

ancient philosophers, who, like those rebellious

spirits,

"Found no end in wandering mazes lost."

But the most amiable and warmest coloring, in which the character of Cicero presents itself to the eye of contemplation, is as a moralist. With what a tender and delicate sensibility has he delineated the pleasures and prescribed the duties of friendship! With what a soothing and beneficent hand has he extended the consolations of virtue to the declining enjoyments and waxing infirmities of old age! With what all vivifying energy has he showered the sunshine of virtue upon the frosty winter of life! His book of offices should be the manuel of every republican; nay it should be the pocket and the pillow companion of every man, desiring to discipline his heart to the love and the practice of every virtue. There you will find the most perfect system of morals, ever promulgated before the glad tidings of christianity. There you will find a valuable and congenial supplement, even to the sublime precepts of the gospel.

It is not then to the students of eloquence alone, that the character and the writings of Cicero