[h] For the character of Secundus, see s. ii. note [c].

[i] Quintilian says, the merit of a fine writer flourishes after his death, for envy does not go down to posterity. Ad posteros enim virtus durabit, nec perveniet invidia. Lib. iii. c. 1.  Envy is always sure to pursue living merit; and therefore, Cleo observes to Alexander, that Hercules and Bacchus were not numbered among the gods, till they conquered the malignity of their contemporaries. Nec Herculem, nec Patrem Liberum, prius dicatos deos, quam vicissent secum viventium invidiam. Quintus Curtius, lib. viii. s. 18.  Pliny the younger has a beautiful epistle on this subject.  After praising, in the highest manner, the various works of Pompeius Saturninus, he says to his correspondent, Let it be no objection to such an author, that he is still living.  If he flourished in a distant part of the world, we should not only procure his books, but we should have his picture in our houses:  and shall his fame be tarnished, because we have the man before our eyes?  Shall malignity make us cease to admire him, because we see him, hear him, esteem and love him? Neque enim debet operibus ejus obesse, QUOD VIVIT.  An si inter eos, quos nunquam vidimus, floruisset, non solum libros ejus, verum etiam imagines conquireremus, ejusdem nunc honor praesentis et gratia quasi satietate languescet?  At hoc pravum malignumque est, non admirari hominem admiratione dignissimum, quia videre, alloqui, audire, complecti, nec laudare tantum, verum etiam amare contingit. Lib. i. ep. 16.

Section XXIV.

[a] In the Dialogues of Plato, and others of the academic school, the ablest philosophers occasionally supported a wrong hypothesis, in order to provoke a thorough discussion of some important question.

[b] Cicero was killed on the seventh of December, in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa, A.U.C. 711; before Christ, 43.  From that time to the sixth of Vespasian the number of years is exactly 117; though in the Dialogue said to be 120.  See s. xvii. note [e].

Section XXV.

[a] See Plutarch’s Lives of Lysias, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, and Hyperides.  See also the elegant translation of the Orations of Lysias, by Dr. Gillies.

[b] For Quintilian’s opinion of Caesar’s eloquence, see s. xvii. note [b].  To what is there said may be added the authority of Cicero, who fairly owns, that Caesar’s constant habit of speaking his language with purity and correctness, exempted him from all the vices of the corrupt style adopted by others.  To that politeness of expression which every well-bred citizen, though he does not aspire to be an orator, ought to practise, when Caesar adds the splendid ornaments of eloquence, he may then be said to place the finest pictures in the best light.  In his manner there is nothing mechanical, nothing of professional craft:  his voice is impressive, and his action dignified.  To air these qualities he unites a certain majesty of mien and figure, that