II.  For to say nothing of former speeches of yours, at all events I cannot pass over in silence this which excites my most especial wonder.  What war is there between you and the Bruti?  Why do you alone attack those men whom we are all bound almost to worship?  Why are you not indignant at one of them being besieged, and why do you—­as far as your vote goes—­strip the other of those troops which by his own exertions and by his own danger he has got together by himself, without any one to assist him, for the protection of the republic, not for himself?  What is your meaning in this?  What are your intentions?  Is it possible that you should not approve of the Bruti, and should approve of Antonius? that you should hate those men whom every one else considers most dear? and that you should love with the greatest constancy those whom every one else hates most bitterly?  You have a most ample fortune, you are in the highest rank of honour, your son, as I both hear and hope is born to glory,—­a youth whom I favour not only for the sake of the republic, but for your sake also.  I ask, therefore, would you rather have him like Brutus or like Antonius? and I will let you choose whichever of the three Antonii you please.  God forbid! you will say.  Why, then, do you not favour those men and praise those men whom you wish your own son to resemble?  For by so doing you will be both consulting the interests of the republic, and proposing him an example for his imitation.

But in this instance, I hope, O Quintus Fufius, to be allowed to expostulate with you, as a senator who greatly differs from you, without any prejudice to our friendship.  For you spoke in this matter, and that too from a written paper, for I should think you had made a slip from want of some appropriate expression, if I were not acquainted with your ability in speaking.  You said “that the letters of Brutus appeared properly and regularly expressed.”  What else is this than praising Brutus’s secretary, not Brutus?  You both ought to have great experience in the affairs of the republic, and you have.  When did you ever see a decree framed in this manner? or in what resolution of the senate passed on such occasions, (and they are innumerable,) did you ever hear of its being decreed that the letters had been well drawn up?  And that expression did not—­as is often the case with other men—­fall from you by chance, but you brought it with you written down, deliberated on, and carefully meditated on.

III.  If any one could take from you this habit of disparaging good men on almost every occasion, then what qualities would not be left to you which every one would desire for himself?  Do, then, recollect yourself, do at last soften and quiet that disposition of yours, do take the advice of good men, with many of whom you are intimate, do converse with that wisest of men, your own son in-law, oftener than with yourself, and then you will obtain the name of a man of the very highest character.  Do you think it a matter of no consequence, (it is a matter in which I, out of the friendship which I feel you, constantly grieve in your stead,) that this should be commonly said out of doors, and should be a common topic of conversation among the Roman people, that the man who delivered his opinion first did not find a single person to agree with him?  And that I think will be the case to day.