In Caesar's bosom, and revenge my country, [ And smile in agony! | Luc. Others, perhaps, | May serve their country with as warm a zeal, | Cato. Come no more', Sempronius, | All here are friends to Rome, and to each other Semp. Cato, my resentments Are sacrificed to Rome | I stand reprov'd. | Cato. Fathers, 't is time you come to a resolve. | Semp. We ought to hold it out till death- | but, Cato,] My private voice is drown'd amidst the senate's. | Cato. Then let us rise, my friends', and strive to fill This little interval, this pause of life, While yet our liberty, and fates are doubtful, | THANATOPSIS.* (W. C. BRYANT.) To him who, in the love of Nature, holds Thanatopsis (Greek), from thanatos, death, and opsis, sight a view of death. And eloquence of beauty; and she glides When thoughts Of the stern, agony, and shroud', │ and pall', | while from all around — | and the depths of air-j Yet a few days, and thee The all-beholding sun | shall see no more' | In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground', { Thy image. Earth that nourish'd thee, shall claim And to the sluggish clod | which the rude swain ! The oak Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould. Yet not to thy eternal resting-place, Shalt thou retire alone, — nor couldst thou wish'] Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down | With patriarchs of the infant world with kings', The powerful of the earth the wise, the good, Fair forms, and hoary seers' of ages past, | All in one mighty sepulchre. | • Sad images; not sad-dim'a-ges. go-r.. Stern agony; not stern-nag The hills, Rock-ribb'd, and ancient as the sun'; the vales', | Are but the solemn decorations all', Of the great tomb of man. | The golden sun、, | The planets, all the infinite host of heav'n, | The flight of years began, have laid them down So shalt thou' rest | and what if thou shalt fall, | As the long train • Sad abodes; not sad'der-bodes. Bu. a handful; not butter handful The bow'd with age, the infant in the smiles So live, that when thy summons comes, to join To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take SPEECH OF CICERO AGAINST VERRES. The time is come, fathers, when that which has long been wished for, towards allaying the envy your order has been subject to, and removing the imputations against trials, is effectually put into your power. [ An opinion has long prevailed, not only here at home, | but likewise in foreign countries, | both dangerous to you, and pernicious to the state, that, in prosecutions, men of wealth are always safe, however clearly convicted. I There is now to be brought upon his trial, before you, to the confusion, I hope, of the propagators of this slanderous imputation, one whose life, and actions condemn him in the opinion of all impartial persons; but who, according to his own reckoning, and declared dependence upon his riches, is already acquitted: I mean Caius Verres. I demand justice of you, Fathers, upon the robber of the public treasury, the oppressor of Asia Minor, and Pamphylia, the invader of the rights, and privileges of Romans, the scourge, and curse of Sicily. ↑ Cut off; not cut-toff'. About him; not abow'tim. Förrin. If that sentence is passed upon him, which his crimes deserve, your authority, Fathers, will be venerable, and sacred in the eyes of the public; but, if his great riches should bias you in his favor, I shall still gain one point, to make it apparent to all the world, | that what was wanting in this case, was not a criminal, nor a prosecutor; but jus tice, and adequate punishment. | To pass over the shameful irregularities of his youth, | what does his ques'torship, the first public employment he held, what does it exhibit, but one continued scene of villanies? | Cneius Carbo, plundered of the public money by his own treasurer, a consul stripped, and betrayed, an army, deserted, and reduced to want, a province, robbed, the civil, and religious rights of a people violated. | The employment he held in Asia Minor, and Pamphylia, what did it produce but the ruin of those countries, in which houses, cities, and temples were robbed by him? What was his conduct in his pretorship here at home? Let the plundered temples, and public works neglected, that he might embezzle the money intended for carrying them on, bear witness. How did he discharge the office of a judge? | Let those who suffered by his injus'tice, answer. | But his pretorship in Sicily, crowns all his works of wickedness, and finishes a lasting monument to his infamy. The mischiefs, done by him in that unhappy country, during the three years of his iniquitous administration, are such, that many years, under the wisest, and best of pretors, will not be sufficient to restore things to the condition in which he found them; for it is notorious, that, during the time of his tyranny, the Sicilians neither enjoyed the protection of their own original laws; of the regulations made for their benefit by the Roman senate, upon their coming under the protection of the commonwealth;, nor of the natural, and unalienable rights of men. ! |