unacceptable briefly to review the social and political condition of the "lords of the world" at the period in which he flourished. The fall of Carthage proved ultimately the ruin of Rome. A political antagonist, who so long had disputed her claim to the empire of the world, was at length removed; and the vigilant patriotism, that had directed with a statesman's sagacity, and watched with a paternal solicitude, the events of the fearful contest, had relaxed its anxiety, and expired with the necessity that gave it birth. The dread of impending ruin had hitherto stilled the clamorous voice of faction, and the excited passions and unquiet spirit of the populace found a more salutary vent in the fields of Cannæ and Thrasymene than in the dark conflicts of a civil feud. The conquest of the East was a second step towards the decline of the republic. The wealth, and luxury, and ostentation of those seductive climes soon infected the triumphant legions of their conquerors; and the pernicious contagion, spreading through all ranks of society, was fatal to the moral and political existence of Rome. Indulgence had rendered the citizens callous to the elevated and heroic principles which constituted the chief glory of the republic; and the gratification of desires unknown to the stern veterans of those iron times, was all the qualification they required from their leaders in the council and the camp. We cannot, then, be surprised if the aspiring genius and daring ambition of an elevated few should have swayed the feelings of the supine multitude, and erected a supreme oligarchy in the midst of the empty forms of the ancient constitution. A dream of liberty, and a devotion to the lost spirit of the olden time, still lingered, it is true, among a virtuous but feeble minority, but the current of universal corruption had set in too strongly for the desponding efforts of the last patriots to oppose its course. The horrors of the proscription-the fearful tragedies that consolidated the power of the triumvirate the plains of Philippi-and the desolation of their beautiful Italy, had effectually broken the turbulent spirit of the citizens, and induced them to accept with gratitude a cessation from civil conflict, even at the sacrifice of their cherished freedom. The subtle policy of Augustus crowned the chains of their captivity with flowers; and, while flattering their pride and prejudice with the specious exhibition of unsubstantial forms, erected, in reality, a tribunal of despotism, from which there was no appeal. The loss of their freedom, by withdrawing the attention of the multitude from the administration of the state,† * * cf. Lucan. Pharsal. lib. i. 24-32. + cf. Juvenal. Sat. x 77-81. constrained them to seek from other sources for that excitement which had become essential to their being, and which before had found its object in the tumult of war, or the intrigues of faction; and the members of the imperial cabinet were too conscious of the importance of this political apathy to attempt to disturb the current of popular opinion. The study of eloquence, and the cultivation of polite literature, had, during the later years of the republic, been a powerful agent in attaining the highest dignities of the state. To plead the cause of the innocent and oppressed-to shield the trembling offender from the vengeance of an infuriated faction-to relieve, too often by interested generosity, the sufferings of the destitute, was the road to popular favour, and, from the nature of the constitution, to political pre-eminence. But when the avenues to distinction were closed against all but the partisans of imperial interest, and the voice of Rome was a cipher in the election of her highest officers, the eloquence and philosophy which, since the conquest of Greece, had enlightened and refined her conquerors, was either limited to private litigation in the forum, and to the schools of rhetoricians, or formed the elegant recreation of the aristocracy. But Oriental conquest had affected equally the morals and the literature of Rome. The lively imaginations of the Asiatic Greeks, vitiated by the proximity of Persia, and fired by the beauty of their voluptuous clime, were incapable of appreciating the chastened sublimity of Athenian eloquence, and they introduced a florid and exuberant style, which found numerous advocates among the orators of Latium. In the hands of men like Cicero and Hortensius, it tended only to enliven and adorn; but the perverted taste of their successors carried to an intemperate and vicious extent, that which, judiciously employed, might have consummated, in its highest state of perfection, the union of judgment and imagination. The patronage extended by Mecanas, Pollio, and Augustus to the brilliant poets of their age, constitutes their highest praise. The illustrious example, though it fostered the noblest creations of genius, carried with it a necessary evil-a swarm of insipid poetasters immediately sprang into existence, and strove, by their degrading adulation and worthless effusions, to win the favour of the great. Hence arose the corruption of all true taste, and the false glitter of a fastidious criticism. The wealthy and the noble cultivated poetry as a species of elegant accomplishment, necessary to the man of letters; their soirées were held frequently for the purpose of recitation, and the venal applause of clients, dependents, and partial friends, flattered their vanity, and confirmed their misdirected taste. The jealous and crafty policy of Tiberius hung like a portentous gloom over all classes of the state. The weak, though cruel, tyranny of despotic favourites and slaves, and the dark system of espionage which, sparing neither friend nor foe, invaded alike the councils of traitors and the sanctity of the domestic hearth, imposed a painful restraint of word and action, and checked every expansion of thought and manifestation of feeling. At a period when the lightest whisper of suspicion consigned the unconscious reveller or the unsuspecting friend to the executioner, and his family to disgrace and ruin; when the jests of conviviality were distorted to the secrets of treason, and the greetings of familiar intercourse interpreted as contempt for the supreme majesty of the empire, a melancholy feeling of universal distrust and dissembled horror reigned throughout the imperial city, infecting alike the vilest plebeian and the haughtiest aristocrat of the realm. The malignant genius of despotism had established its reign of terror, and life and fortune and fame were the sport of a cruel and capricious tyrant. The ignominious resource of concealing the fatal dower of high capabilities for thought and action, consigned to oblivion men who, under a free constitution, would have shed a lustre on the annals of their country; for the slightest demonstration of independent thought, or the acquisition of a distinguished name, would soon have withered before the pestilent breath of the informer, and the career of glory have terminated in an untimely grave. Under such a system the undeveloped energies of Roman genius grew feebler and fainter, and the indignant few, who became the willing martyrs of virtue and reason, supplied a melancholy warning to the survivors. The tyranny and assassination of the succeeding princes left Nero in possession of the imperial purple. The instructions of Seneca had not been wholly without effect. He may have failed, if he ever attempted, to impart the stern and ungenial principles of the sect to which he was nominally attached; but the more seductive charms of poetry, music, and eloquence received from his royal pupil as profound a homage as the more ignoble pursuits of his intemperate hours. Of his early predilection for the study of poetry, we have the evidence of Tacitus (an. xiii. 3.) of Suetonius (Ner. 52.) "Liberales disciplinas omnes fere puer attigit-itaque, ad poeticam pronus, carmina libenter ac sine labore composuit: nec, ut quidam putant, aliena pro suis edidit ;" and of nearly every writer who has spoken of his pursuits.-Suetonius asserts that his mother diverted his attention from the sublimer truths of philosophy, as being incompatible with the dignity of the imperial character: and that Seneca wilfully concealed the chastened beauties of the ancient orators from his inspection; 66 quo diutius in admiratione sui detineret." It is certain, however, that he acquired some proficiency in eloquence, although probably of that false and affected character which was the prevailing taste of the day : "Pro Bononiensibus Latine et pro Rhodiis Gracè verba fecit (Suet. Ner. 7.) See Tacit. an. xiv. 21. Dio Cass. Ixi. His inordinate passion for music induced him repeatedly to become a "competitor in the provincial games, and the prize for eloquence and poetry was frequently awarded to the royal candidate, as Dio well remarks ταυτα μεντοι παντα ποιουντα, ινα τον τῶν κιθαρωδων αγωνα νικησας ηττηθη τον τῶν καισερων. He composed a musical piece, called Niobe (Suet. 21.) and another on the capture of Troy, which he is said to have recited during the horrors of the great conflagration (Tacit. an. xv. 39. Suet. Ner. 38.; Dio. lxii. p. 709.) It appears probable also from Suetonius (c. 24.) that he attempted satire, or invective. It is evident that the ruling passion of the court would, in an age lost to every noble and independent feeling, soon become that of Rome.* The generous and uncorrupted spirit that glowed within the bosom of the youthful disciple of Zeno was ill constituted to meet the universal corruption that pervaded the society and literature of the imperial capital. The severity of his philosophical tenets, combined with the warmth of a lively imagination, bestowed a sincerity on his censure that challenged the approbation of the virtuous, and disquieted the reflections of the depraved. It was no frigid essay on moral obligations, compromising the intemperance of wealth, and youth, and nobility; but an ardent enunciation of an ideal system of morality, perhaps too pure and elevated for the conditions of human existence: at least such was the character of its prevailing principles. The affected dogmas, which are undeniably united with them, constituted the essential elements of their school, only in the imaginations of those, whose superficial views extended to the minute shades by which they differed from other sects, not to the important and comprehensive doctrines which united them in a fraternity of principle with the wisest and the greatest of every age. Let us briefly examine a few of the Stoical tenets scattered through his writings. "Nec te quæsiveris extra" (Sat. i. 7.), many of the editors cite in illustration of this passage, the yvw oɛavrov of the Pythian shrine, * cf. Juvenal. Sat. viii. 198. and the tecum habita (Sat. iv. 52.*), misled by a careless examination of the philosophical tenets of the Porch. The two dogmas are essentially different. The precept in the text is not uncommon among the ethical writers of antiquity, but it is especially enforced by the Stoics. By it they did not inculcate an arrogant self-sufficiency, but maintained that it was the aim and object of all who desired to approximate the idealized perfection of the copos, to found their happiness upon those objects which are subjected to their dominion (ra ep' nuv. Epictet. Ench. c. 1.), and to render themselves wholly independent of the variable accidents which are placed beyond their immediate control. (та ovк eq'μv. Epict.) The nature of these objects Epictetus thus explains, τa μɛv eq' ἡμιν εστι ὑποληφις, όρμη, ορεξις, εκκλισις, καὶ ἐνι λογῳ ὅσα ἡμετέρα εργα. Ουκ εφ' ήμιν δε τα σωμα, ἡ κτησις, δόξαι, αρχαι, καὶ ενι λογῳ оσα ovк ημɛтερа ɛpya. (Ench, c. 1.) It is evident from the context that Persius recommends a total disregard of the dola, or opinion of the pseudo-critics of Rome, and their venal preference of the contemptible poetaster Labeo; in other words, he will not determine his happiness and tranquillity of mind by the fleeting breath of popular opinion (one of the ovк εp' nur, te extra), but will seek for a more permanent reward, in the conscious integrity of a spirit uninfluenced by prejudice and uncorrupted by passion. So Milton (Par. Lost, viii. 643.) "Perfect within, no outward aid require." and Cicero (Paradox xi.), "Nemo potest non beatissimus esse, qui est totus aptus ex sese quique in se uno sua ponit omnia." (cf. Senect. ii. Amicit. ii. Id. ix.) This will engender that freedom of action and independence of thought which constituted the only ambition the wise man could innocently indulge: but what connection has this with the second dogma, "tecum habita," or "yvwdi σeavтov?" By this was intended a self-examination, which, by informing the examiner of the real extent and character of his resources, might check the follies of presumption, and regulate the conduct of life. It is so employed by Persius, in the passage "tecum habita" (Sat. iv. 52.); so by Xenophon (Mem. iv. 2. 24.); so by Juvenal (Sat. xi. 27.), who thus comments on it (v. 33.), "Te consule, dic tibi quis sis." (cf. Ausonius. Luct. Sept. Sap. Ovid. Ars Amat. ii. 501. Xenoph. Mem. iii. 9. 6.) Cicero (de Finib. lib. v. 14.) interprets the sentiment, "Jubet nos igitur Pythius Apollo noscere nosmetipsos, cognitio autem hæc est una, ut vim nostri corporis animique norimus, sequamurque See the Annotation of Lubin, which has received the approbation of Dr. Stocker. |