But it cannot be denied, that if we know too much of Cicero to judge him merely by his public life, as we are obliged to do with so many heroes of history, we also know far too little of those stormy times in which he lived, to pronounce too strongly upon his behaviour in such difficult circumstances.  The true relations between the various parties at Rome, as we have tried to sketch them, are confessedly puzzling even to the careful student.  And without a thorough understanding of these, it is impossible to decide, with any hope of fairness, upon Cicero’s conduct as a patriot and a politician.  His character was full of conflicting elements, like the times in which he lived, and was necessarily in a great degree moulded by them.  The egotism which shows itself so plainly alike in his public speeches and in his private writings, more than once made him personal enemies, and brought him into trouble, though it was combined with great kindness of heart and consideration for others.  He saw the right clearly, and desired to follow it, but his good intentions were too often frustrated by a want of firmness and decision.  His desire to keep well with men of all parties, so long as it seemed possible (and this not so much from the desire of self-aggrandisement, as from a hope through their aid to serve the commonwealth) laid him open on more than one occasion to the charge of insincerity.

There is one comprehensive quality which may be said to lave been wanting in his nature, which clouded his many excellences, led him continually into false positions, and even in his delightful letters excites in the reader, from time to time, an impatient feeling of contempt.  He wanted manliness.  It was a quality which was fast dying out, in his day, among even the best of the luxurious and corrupt aristocracy of Rome.  It was perhaps but little missed in his character by those of his contemporaries who knew and loved him best.  But without that quality, to an English mind, it is hard to recognise in any man, however brilliant and amiable, the true philosopher or hero.

The views which this great Roman politician held upon the vexed question of the ballot did not differ materially from those of his worthy grandfather before-mentioned.[1] The ballot was popular at Rome,—­for many reasons, some of them not the most creditable to the characters of the voters; and because it was popular, Cicero speaks of it occasionally, in his forensic speeches, with a cautious praise; but of his real estimate of it there can be no kind of doubt.  “I am of the same opinion now”, he writes to his brother, “that ever I was; there is nothing like the open suffrage of the lips”.  So in one of his speeches, he uses even stronger language:  “The ballot”, he says, “enables men to open their faces, and to cover up their thoughts; it gives them licence to promise whatever they are asked, and at the same time to do whatever they please”.  Mr. Grote once quoted a phrase of Cicero’s,