I. * * * *® Since mention has been made of the body and of the mind, I will endeavour to explain the theory of each as well as the weakness of my understanding is able to comprehend it—a duty which I think it the more becoming in me to undertake, because Marcus Tullius, a man of singular genius, after having attempted to perform it in the fourth book of his treatise on the Commonwealth, | compressed a subject of wide extent within narrow limits, only touching lightly on all the principal points. And that there might be no excuse alleged for his not having followed out. this topic, he himself has assured us that he was ‘not wanting either in inclination or in anxiety to do so; for, in the first book of his treatise on Laws, when he was touching briefly on the same subject, he speaks thus: **This topic Scipio, in my opinion, has snificiently discussed in those books which you have read.”
And the mind itself, which sees the future, remembers the past. — Well did Marcus Tullius say, In truth, if there is no one who would not prefer death to being changed into the form of some beast, ¢ ON THE COMMONWEALTH. 369 although he were still to retain the mind of a man, how much more wretched is it to have the mind of a beast in the form of a man? To me this fate appears as much worse than the other, as the mind is superior to the body.
Tullius says somewhere that he does not think the good of a ram and of Publius Africanus identical.
And also by its being interposed, it causes shade and night, which is adapted both to the numbering of days, and to rest from labour.
‘And as in the autumn he has opened the earth to receive seeds, in winter relaxed it that it may digest them, and by the ripening powers of summer softened some, and burnt up others.
_ When the shepherds use * * * * for cattle.
Cicero, in the fourth book of his Commonwealth, uses the word ** Armentum,” and Armentarius, derived from it.
II. The great law of just and regular subordination is the basis of political prosperity. There is much advantage in the harmonious succession of ranks, and orders, and classes, in which the suffrages of the knights and the senators have their due weight. ‘Too many have foolishly desired to destroy this institution, in the vain hope of receiving some new largess by a public decree, out of a distribution of the preperty of the nobility.
III. Consider, now, how wisely the other provisions have been adopted, in order to secure to the citizens the benefits of an honest and happy life; for that is, indeed, the grand object of all political association, and that which every govern- ment should endeavour to procure for the people, partly by its institutions, and partly by its laws.
Consider, in the first place, the national education of the people—a matter on which the Greeks have expended much labour in vain, and which is the only point on which Poly- bius, who settled among us, accuses the negligence of our institutions. or our countrymen have thought that educa- tion ought not to be fixed, nor regulated by laws, nor be given publicly and uniformly to all classes of society. For According to Tully, who says, that men going to serve in the army have guardians assigned to them by whom they are governed the first year, TV. [In our ancient laws, young men were prohibited from appearing| naked in the public baths—so far back were — 1 Six or eight pages are missing here. DE NAT. ETC. BB 370 ON THE COMMONWEALTH, the principles of modesty traced by our ancestors. Among the Greeks, on the contrary, what an absurd system of train- ing youth is exhibited in their gymnasia! What a frivolous preparation for the labours and hazards of war! what inde- cent spectacles, what impure and licentious amours are per- mitted! I do not speak only of the Eleans and Thebans, among whom, in all love affairs, passion is allowed to run into shameless excesses; but the Spartans, while they permit every kind of licence to their young men, save that of viola- tion, fence off by a very slight wall the very exception on which they insist, besides other crimes which I will not mention.
_ Then Leelius said—I see, my Scipio, that on the subject of the Greek institutions, which you censure, you prefer attack- ing the customs of the most renowned peoples, to contending with your favourite Plato, whose name you have avoided citing, especially as * * *.* V. So that Cicero, in his treatise on the Commonwealth, says that it was a reproach to young men if they had no lovers.
Not only as at Sparta, where boys learn to steal and plunder.
And our master Plato, even more than Lycurgus; who would have. everything to be common, so that no one should be able to call anything his own property.
LI would send him to the same place whither he sends Homer, crowned with chaplets and anointed with perfumes, banishing him from the city which he is describing.
VI. The judgment of the censor inflicts scarcely anything more than a blush on the man whom he condemns. Therefore as all that adjudication turus solely on the name (zomex), the punishment is called ignominy. | Nor should a prefect be set over women, an officer who is created among’ the Greeks; but there should be a censor to teach husbands to manage their wives., So the discipline of modesty has great power. All women abstain from wine. |! y And also if any woman was of bad character, her relations used not to kiss her. | | So petulance is derived from asking ( petendo). Wantonness (Pro- cacitas) from procando, that is, from demanding. | _ VII. For Ido not approve of the same nation being the ruler and — the farmer of lands. But both in private families and in the affairs of the Commonwealth I look upon economy as a revenue. ee Faith (Fides) appears to me to derive its name from that being done (fit) which is said. 7: ON THE COMMONWEALTH. 37t In a citizen of rank and noble birth, caressing manners, display, and ambition are marks of levity., Examine for a while the books on the Republic, and learn that good men know no bound or limit in consulting the interests of their country. See in that treatise with what praises frugality, and con- tinency, and fidelity to the marriage tie, and chaste, honourable, and virtuous manners are extolled.
VIIL. I marvel at the elegant choice, not only of the facts, but of the language. If they dispute (jurgazt). It is a contest between well-wishers, not a quarrel between enemies, that is called a dispute. ( jurgium).: Therefore the law considers that neighbours dispute (jurgare). rather than quarrel (ditigare) with one another. al The bounds of man’s care and of man’s life are the same; so by: the pontifical law the sanctity of burial * * * * | They put them to death, though innocent, because they had left those men unburied whom they could not rescue from the sea because: of the violence of the storm. ) Nor in this discussion have I advocated the cause of the populace, but of the good. 43 For one cannot easily resist a powerful people if one gives them either no rights at all, or very little.: In which case T wish I could augur first with truth and fidelity: IX. Cicero saying this in vain, when speaking of poets,—“and- when the shouts and approval of the people, as of some great and. wise teacher, has reached them, what darkness do they bring on; what alarms do they cause; what desires do they excite.”
Cicero says that if his life were extended to twice its length he should not have time to read the lyric poets.: X. As Scipio says in Cicero, “ As: they thought the whole his- trionic art, and everything connected with the theatre, discreditable,,. they thought fit that all men of that description should not only be deprived of the honours belonging to the rest of the citizens, but:. should also be deprived of their franchise by the sentence of the censors. | 3 _ And -what the ancient.Romans thought on this subject Cicero. informs us, in those books which he wrote on the Commonwealth, where Scipio argues.and says * * * * *.
Comedies could never (if it had not been authorized by, the common customs of life) have made theatres approve. of their scandalous exhibitions. And.the more ancient. Greeks provided a certain correction for the vicious taste’ of the people, by making a law that it should be expressly‘ defined by a censorship what subjects comedy should treat, and how she should treat them.
BBQ oUz. ON THE COMMONWEALTH.
Whom has it not attacked? or rather, whom has it not wounded? and whom has it. spared? In this, no doubt, it sometimes took the right side, and lashed the popular dema- gogues and seditious agitators, such as Cleon, Cleophon, and Hyperbolus. We may tolerate that; though indeed the censure of the magistrate would, in these cases, have been more efficacious than the satire of the poet. But when Pericles, who governed the Athenian Commonwealth for so many years with the highest authority, both in peace and war, was outraged by verses, and these were acted on the stage, it was hardly more decent than if, among us, Plautus and Nevius had attacked Publius and Cnzeus, or Ceecilius had ventured to revile Marcus Cato.
Our laws of the Twelve Tables, on the contrary—so care- ful to attach capital punishment to a very few crimes only— have included in this class of capital offences, the offence of composing or publicly reciting verses of libel, slander, and defamation, in order to cast dishonour and infamy on a fellow-citizen. And they have decided wisely; for our life and character should, if suspected, be submitted to the sen- tence of judicial tribunals, and the legal investigations of our magistrates, and not to the whims and fancies of poets. Nor should we be exposed to any charge of disgrace which we cannot meet by legal process, and openly refute at the bar.
In our laws, I admire the justice of their expressions, as well as their decisions. Thus the word pleading, signifies rather an amicable suit between friends, than a quarrel between enemies.
It is not easy to resist a powerful people, if you allow them no'rights, or next to none.: ’ The old Romans would not allow any living man to be either praised or blamed on the stage. | XI. Cicero says that comedy is an imitation of life; a mirror of customs, an image of truth.
Since,.as is mentioned in that book on the Commonwealth, not only did Alschines the Athenian, a man of the greatest eloquence, who, when a young man, had been an actor of tragedies, concern himself in public affairs, but the Athenians often sent Aristodemus, who was also a tragic actor, to Philip as an ambassador, to treat of the most important affairs of peace and war, ON THE COMMONWEALTH, ie BUOY, INTRODUCTION BY THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATOR, In this Fifth Book Cicero explains and enforces the duties of magis- trates, and the importance of practical experience to all who under- take their important functions. Only a few fragments have survived the wreck of ages, and descended to us,?
FRAGMENTS, I. Enntus has told us— Of men and customs mighty Rome consists; which verse, both for its precision and its verity, appears to me as if it had issued from an oracle; for neither the men, unless the state had adopted a certain system of manners— nor the manners, unless they had been illustrated by the men—could ever have established or maintained for so many ages so vast a republic, or one of such righteous and exten- Sive sway.
Thus, long before our own times, the force of hereditary manners of itself moulded most eminent men, and admirable citizens in return gave new weight to the ancient customs and institutions of our ancestors. But our age, on the con- trary, having received the commonwealth as a finished picture of another century, but one already beginning to fade through the lapse of years, has not only neglected to renew the colours of the original painting, but has not even cared to preserve its general form and prominent lineaments, For what now remains of those antique manners, of which the poet said that our commonwealth consisted? They have now become so obsolete and forgotten, that they are not only ‘ B74 ON THE COMMONWEALTED not cultivated, but they are not even known. And as to the men, what shall I say? For the manners themselves have only perished, through a scarcity of men; of which great misfortune we are not only called to give an account, but even, as men accused of capital offences, to a certain degree to plead our own cause in connexion with it. For it is owing to our vices, rather than to any accident, that we have retained the name of republic when we have long since lost the reality.: I]. * * * There is no employment so essentially royal as the exposition of equity, which comprises the true inter- pretation of all laws. This justice, subjects used generally to expect from their kings. For this reason, lands, fields, ‘woods, and pastures, were reserved as the property of kings, and cultivated for them, without any labour on their part, in order that no anxiety on account of their personal interests might distract their attention from the welfare of the state. Nor was any private man allowed to be the judge or arbitrator in any suit; but all disputes were terminated by the royal sentence.: And of all our Roman monarchs, Numa appears to me to have best preserved this ancient custom of the kings of Greece. For the others, though they also discharged this duty, were for the main part employed in conducting military enterprises, and in attending to those rights which belonged to war. But the long peace of Numa’s reign was the mother of law and religion in this city. And he was himself the author of those admirable laws which, as you are aware, are still extant. And this character is precisely what belongs to the man of whom we are speaking * * * * * | III. [Scipio.—Ought not a farmer] to be acquainted with the nature of plants and seeds?
Manilius.—Certainly, provided he attends to his practical business also. 3 Scipio.—Do you think that knowledge only fit for a_ steward?; ) _ Manilius.—Certainly not, inasmuch as the cultivation of land often fails for want of agricultural labour.
Scipio.—Therefore, as the steward knows the nature of a — field, and the scribe knows penmanship; and as both of them seek, in their respective sciences, not mere amusement only, THE SH CS Se ag ON THE COMMONWEALTE. ~ 375 but practical utility: so this statesman of ours should have studied the science of jurisprudence.and legislation; he should have investigated their original sources; but he should not embarrass himself in debating and arguing, reading and scribbling. He should rather employ himself in the actual administration of government, and become a sort of steward of it, being perfectly conversant with the princi- ples of universal law and equity, without which no man can be just: not unfamiliar with the civil laws of ‘states; but he will use them for practical purposes, even as a pilot uses astronomy, and a physician natural philosophy. For both these men bring their theoretical science to bear on the practice of their arts; and our statesman:|should do the same with the science of politics, and make it subservient to the actual interests of philanthropy and patriotism]. * * * Iv. * * * * Jn states in which good men desire glory and approbation, and shun disgrace and ignominy. Nor are such men so much alarmed by the threats and penalties of the law, as by that sentiment of shame with which nature has endowed man, which is nothing else than a certain fear of deserved censure. The wise director of a government strengthens this natural instinct by the force of public opinion, and perfects it by education and manners. And thus the citizens are preserved from vice and corruption.
rather by honour and shame, than by fear of punishment.
But this argument will be better illustrated, when we treat of.
the love of glory and praise, which we shall. discuss on another occasion.
V. As respects the private life and the manners of the citizens, they are intimately connected with the laws that con- stitute just marriages and legitimate offspring, under the pro- tection of the guardian deities, around the domestic hearths. By these laws, all men should be maintained in their rights of public and private property. It is only under a good govern- ment like this, that men can live happily—for nothing can be more delightful than a well-constituted state. — On which account, a ee to me 2 Very strange ome what this * * * VI. I therefore consume all my eae in meinintecins what is the power of that man, whom, as you think, we have described carefully enough in our books. Do you, then, admit our idea of that governor 376 ON THE COMMONWEALTH, of a commonwealth to whom we wish to refer everything? For thus, I imagine, does Scipio speak in the fifth book, “For as a fair voyage is the object of the master of a ship, the health of his patient the aim of a physician, and victory that of a general, so the happiness of his fellow-citizens is the proper study of the ruler of a common- wealth; that they may be stable in power, rich in resource’, widely known in reputation, and honourable through their virtue. For a ruler ought to be one who can perfect this, which is the best and most important employment among mankind, And works in your literature rightly praise that ruler of a country who consults the welfare of his people more than their inclinations.
VII. Tully, in those books which he wrote upon the Common- wealth, could not conceal his opinions, when he speaks of appointing a chief of the state, who, he says, must be maintained by glory; and afterwards he relates that his ancestors did many admirable and noble actions from a desire of glory.
Tully, in his treatise on the Commonwealth, wrote that the chief of a state must be maintained by glory, and that a commonwealth would last as long as honour was paid by every one to the chief, [The next paragraph is unintelligible. | Which virtue is called fortitude, which consists of magnanimity, and a great contempt of death and pain. ’ VIII. As Marcellus was fierce, and eager to fight, Maximus pru- dent and cautious.
Who discovered his violence and unbridled ferocity.
Which has often happened not only to individuals, but also to most powerful nations.
In the whole world, Because he inflicted the annoyances of his old age on your families.: IX. Cicero, in his treatise on the Commonwealth, says, “As Menelaus of Lacedemon had a certain agreeable sweetness of ‘eloquence.” And in another place he says, “Let him cultivate brevity in speaking.” Mae By the evidence of which arts, as Tully says, it is a shame for the conscience of the judge to be misled. For he says, “ And as nothing in a commonwealth ought to be so uncorrupt as a suffrage and a sentence, I do not see why the man who perverts them by money is worthy of punishment, while he who does so by eloquence is even raised. Indeed, I myself think that he who corrupts the judge by his speech, does more harm than he who does so by money, because “no one can corrupt a sensible man by money, though he may by speaking.” |: _. And when Scipio had said this, Mummius praised him greatly, for he was extravagantly imbued with a hatred of orators, ON THE COMMONWEALTH, 377 BOOK Vi, - In this last book of his Commonwealth, Cicero labours to show that truly pious philanthropical and patriotic statesmen will not only be rewarded on earth by the approval of conscience, and the applause of all good citizens, but that they may expect hereafter immortal glory in new forms of being, ‘To illustrate this, he introduces the “ Dream of Scipio,” in which he explains the resplendent doctrines of Plato respecting the immortality of the soul with inimitable dignity and elegance, This Somnium Scipionis, for which we are indebted to the citation of Macrobius, is the most beautiful thing of the kind ever written. It has been intensely admired by all European scholars, and will be still more so. There are two translations of it in our language; one attached to Oliver’s edition of Cicero’s Thoughts, the other by Mr. Danby, published in 1829. Of these we have freely availed our- selves, and as freely we express our acknowledgments, SCIPIO’S DREAM, SCIPIO’S DREAM, I, THEREFORE you rely upon all the prudence of this rule, which has derived its very name ( prudentia) from foreseeing (a providendo). Wherefore the citizen must so prepare himself as to be always armed against those things which trouble the constitution of a state. And that dissension of the citizens, when one party separates from and attacks another, is called sedition; | And in truth in civil dissensions, as the good are of more impor- tance than the many, I think that we should regard the weight of the citizens, and not their number, For the lusts, being severe’ mistresses of the thoughts, command and compel many an unbridled action, And as they cannot be satis- fied or appeased by any means, they urge those whom they have inflamed with their allurements to every kind of atrocity.
II. Which indeed was so much the greater in him, because though the cause of the colleagues was identical, not only was their unpopu- larity not equal, but the influence of Gracchus was employed in - mitigating the hatred borne to Claudius, |, 378 ON THE COMMONWEALTH.
Who encountered the number of the chiefs and nobles with these words, and left behind him that mournful and dignified expression of his gravity and influence.; | That, as he writes, a thousand men might every day descend into the forum with cloaks dyed in purple.
[The neat paragraph is unintelligible. | For our ancestors wished marriages to be firmly established.
There is a speech extant of Leelius with which we are all acquainted, expressing how pleasing to the immortal gods are the * * * and of the priests.
Ill. Cicero, writing about the Commonwealth, in imitation of Plato, has related the story of the return of Er the Pamphylian to life; who, as he says, had come to life again after he had been placed on the funeral pile, and related many secrets about the shades below; not speaking like Plato in a fabulous imitation of truth, but using a certain reasonable invention of an ingenious dream, cleverly intimat- ing that these things which were uttered about the immortality of the soul, and about heaven, are not the inventions of dreaming philo- saphers, nor the incredible fables which the Epicureans ridicule, but the conjectures of wise men. He insinuates that that Scipio, who by the subjugation of Carthage obtained Africanus as a surname for his family, gave notice to Scipio the son of Paulus of the treachery which threatened him from his relations, and the course of fate, because by the necessity of numbers he was confined in the period of a perfect life, and he says that he in the fifty-sixth year of hisage * * * TV. Some of our religion who lore Plato, on account of his ad- mirable kind of eloquence, and of some correct opinions which he held, say, that he had some opinions similar to my own touching the resurrection of the dead—which subject Tully touches on in his trea- tise on the Commonwealth, and says, that he was rather jesting than intending to say that was true. For he asserts, that a man returned to life, and related some stories which harmonised with the discussions of the Platonists. | V. In this point the imitation has especially preserved the likeness of the work, because, as Plato, in the conclusion of his volume, repre- sents a certain person who had returned to life, which he appeared to have quitted, as indicating what is the condition of souls when stripped of the body, with the addition of a certain not unneces- sary description of the spheres and stars, an appearance of circum- stances indicating things of the same kind is related by the Scipio of Cicero, as having been brought before him in sleep. nel VI. Tully is found to have preserved this arrangement with no less judgment than genius. After, im every condition of the Common- wealth, whether of leisure or business, he has g the palm to justice, he has placed the sacred abodes of the immortal souls, and the secrets of the heavenly regions, on ‘the very summit of his com- ON THE COMMONWEALTH? 379 pleted work; indicating whither they must come or rather return, who have managed the republic with prudence, justice, fortitude, and moderation. But that Platonic relator of-secrets was a man of the name of Er, a Pamphylian by nation, a soldier by profession, who, after he appeared to have died from wounds received in battle, and twelve days afterwards was about to receive the honours of the funeral pile with the others who were slain at the same time, suddenly either recover- ing his life, (or else never having lost it,) as if he were giving a public | testimony, related to all men all that. he had done or seen in the days that he had thus passed between life and death. Although Cicero, as if himself conscious of the truth, grieves that this story has been ridiculed by the ignorant, still, avoiding giving an example of foolish reproach, he preferred speaking of the relator as of one awakened from a swoon rather than restored to life.: VII. And before we look at the words of the dream we must ex- plain what kind of persons they are by whom Cicero says that even the account of Plato was ridiculed, who are not apprehensive that the same thing may happen tothem. Nor, by this expression, does he wish the ignorant mob to be understood, but a kind of men who are igno- rant of the truth, though pretending to be philosophers, with a display of learning; who it was notorious had read such things, and were eager to find faults. We will say, therefore, who they are whom he reports as having levelled light reproaches against so great a philo- sopher, and who of them has even left an accusation of him com- mitted to writing, &c. The whole faction of the Kpicureans, always wandering at an equal distance from truth, and thinking everything ridiculous which they do not understand, has ridiculed the sacred volume, and the most venerable mysteries of nature. But Colotes, who is somewhat celebrated and remarkable for his loquacity among the pupils of Hpicurus, has even recorded in a book the bitter reproaches which he aims at him. But since the other arguments which he foolishly urges have no connexion with the dream of which we are now talking, we will pass them over at present, and attend only to the calumny which will stick both to Cicero and Plato, unless it is silenced. He says that a fable ought not to have been invented. by a philosopher, since no kind of falsehood is suitable to professors of truth. or why, says he, if you wish to give us a notion of hea- venly things, and to teach us the nature of souls, did you not do so by a simple and plain explanation? why was a character invented, and circumstances, and strange events, and a scene of cunningly adduced falsehood arranged, to pollute the very door of the investigation of truth by a lie? ‘Since these things, though they are said of the Platonic Er, do also attack the rest of our dreaming Africanus.
VIII. This occasion incited Scipio to relate his dream, which he declares that he had buried in silence for a long time. For when Lelius was complaining that there were no statues of Nasica erected in any public place, as a reward for his having slain the tyrant, 389 ON THE COMMONWEALTH, Scipio replied in these words, * But, although the consciousness itself of great deeds is to wise men the most ample reward of virtue, yet that divine nature ought to have, not statues fixed in lead, nor triumphs with withering laurels, but some more stable and lastin kinds of rewards.” ‘“‘ What are they?” said Lelius. Then,” said Scipio, “suffer me, since we have now been keeping holiday for three days, * * * * &c,” By which preface he came to the relation of his dream; pointing out that those were the more stable and lasting kinds of rewards which he himself had seen in heayen reserved for good governors of commonwealths,: IX. When I had arrived in Africa, where I was, as you are aware, military tribune of the fourth legion under the consul Manilius, there was nothing of which I was more earnestly _desirous than to see king Masinissa, who, for very just reasons, had been always the especial friend of our family. When I was introduced to him, the old man embraced me, shed tears, and then, looking up to heaven, exclaimed—lI thank thee, O supreme Sun, and ye also, ye other celestial beings, that before I depart from this life I behold in my _ kingdom, and in this my palace, Publius Cornelius Scipio, by whose mere name I seem to be re-animated; so completely and indelibly is the recollection of that best and most in- vincible of men, Africanus, imprinted in my mind.
After this, I inquired of him concerning the affairs of his kingdom, He, on the other hand, questioned me about the condition of our commonwealth, and in this mutual inter- change of conversation we passed the whole of that day.
X. In the evening, we were entertained in a manner worthy the magnificence of a king, and carried on our discourse for a considerable part of the night. And during all this time the old man spoke of nothing but Africanus, all whose actions, and even remarkable sayings, he remembered distinctly. At last, when we retired to bed, I fell into a more profound sleep ‘than usual, both because I was fatigued with my journey, and because I had sat up the greatest part of the night.
Here I had the following dream, occasioned, as I verily believe, by our preceding conversation—for it frequently happens that the thoughts and discourses which have em- ployed us in the day time, produce in our sleep an effect somewhat similar to that which Ennius writes happened to him about Homer, of whom, in his waking hours, he used frequently to think and speak, ON THE COMMONWEALTH, 381 Africanus, I thought, appeared to me in that shape, with which I was better acquainted from his picture, than from any personal knowledge of him. When I perceived it was he, I confess I trembled with consternation; but he addressed me, saying, Take courage, my Scipio, be not afraid, and carefully remember what I shall say to you. - XI. Do you see that city Carthage, which, though brought under the Roman yoke by me, is now renewing former wars, and cannot live in peace? (and he pointed to Carthage from a lofty spot, full of stars, and brilliant, and glittering;) to attack which city you are this day arrived in a station not much superior to that of a private soldier. Before two years, however, are elapsed, you shall be consul, and complete its overthrow; and you shall obtain, by your own merit, the sur- name of Africanus, which, as yet, belongs to you no otherwise than as derived from me. - And when you have destroyed Carthage, and received the honour of a triumph, and been made censor, and, in quality of ambassador, visited Egypt, Syria, Asia, and Greece, you shall be elected a second time consul in your absence, and, by utterly destroying Numantia, put an end to a most dangerous war.
But when you have entered the Capitol in your triumphal car, you shall find the Roman commonwealth all in a ferment, through the intrigues of my grandson Tiberius Gracchus, XII. It is on this occasion, my dear Africanus, that you show your country the greatness of your understanding, capacity, and prudence. But I see that the destiny, however, of that time is, as it were, uncertain; for when your age shall have accomplished seven times eight revolutions of the sun, and your fatal hours shall be marked out by the natural pro- duct of these two numbers, each of which is esteemed a perfect one, but for different reasons,—then shall the whole city have recourse to you alone, and place its hopes in your auspicious name. On you the senate, all good citizens, the allies, the people of Latium, shall cast their eyes; on you the preserva- tion of the state shall entirely depend. In a word, 7f you escape the impious machinations of your relatives, you will, in quality of dictator, establish order and tr anquillity in the commonwealth.
When on this Leelius made an exclamation, and the rest of the company groaned loudly, Scipio, with a gentle smile, said’ 382 ON THE COMMONWEALTH.
—I entreat you, do not wake me out of my dream, but have patience, and hear the rest.
XIIi. Now, in order to encourage you, my dean Africanus, continued the shade of my ancestor, to defend the state with the greater cheerfulness, be assured that for all those who have in any way conduced to the preservation, defence, and enlargement of their native country, there is a certain place in heaven, where they shall enjoy an eternity of happiness. For nothing on earth is more agreeable to God, the Supreme Governor of the universe, than the assemblies and societies of men united together by laws, which are called States. It is from heaven their rulers and preservers came, and thither they return.
XIV. Though at these words I was extremely troubled, not, so much at the fear of death, as at the perfidy of my own relations; yet I recollected myself enough to inquire, whether he himself, my father Paulus, and others whom we look upon as dead, were really living.
Yes, truly, replied he, they all enjoy life who have escaped from the chains of the body as from a prison. But as to what, you call life on earth, that is no more than one form of death. But see, here comes your father Paulus towards you! And as soon as I observed him, my eyes burst out into a flood of tears; but he took me in his arms, embraced me, and bade me not weep.
XV. When my first transports subsided, and I regained: the liberty of speech, 1 addressed my, father thus:—Thou best and most venerable of parents, since this, as I am in-. formed. by Africanus, is the only substantial life, why do I linger on earth, and not rather haste to come hither where; you are?
That, replied he, is impossible; unless that God, whose. temple is all that. vast expanse you behold, shall free you: from the fetters of the body, you can have no admission into: this place. Mankind have received their being on this very condition, that they should labour for the preservation of that; globe, which is situated, as you see, in the midst of this temple, and is called earth, Men are likewise endowed with a soul, which is a portion, of the eternal fires, which you call stars and constellations; gud which, being round. spherical bodies, animated " divine; ON THE COMMONWEALTH. 383.
' intelligences, perform their cycles and revolutions with amazing rapidity. It is your duty, therefore, my. Publius, and that of all who have any veneration for the Gods, to preserve this wonderful union of soul and body; nor without the express command of him whe gave you a soul, should the least thought be entertained of quitting human life, lest you seem to desert the post assigned you by God himself: But rather follow the examples of your grandfather here, and of me, your father, in paying a strict regard to justice