with warmer admiration, than the fortitude with which he fupported the death of his illuftrious fon.18 The funeral oration he pronouced upon that affecting occasion, is in every body's hands and which of the philofophers, I will venture to afk, does not fink in our esteem after the perufing of this admirable performance? 19 The truth is, it was not solely in the confpicuous paths of the world, and when he was acting in the public view, that this excellent man was truly great; he appeared ftill greater in the private and domestic scenes of life.20 How pleafing and inftructive was his converfation ! how profound his knowledge of antiquity! how deep his fkill in the science of augury! To which I may add, that he was better acquainted with Grecian literature than is ufual for a Roman. His memory too was fo remarkably faithful, that there was not a fingle event of any note that had happened in the wars either with our neighbours in Italy, or with the more distant nations,

with which he was not perfectly well acquainted. In fhort, from my first connection with him, I as eagerly em-. braced every opportunity of enjoying his fociety, as if I had then prefaged, what the event has verified, that after his death I fhould never again meet with so wife and informing a compa

nion.21

I have entered thus minutely into the character and conduct of Maximus, in order to convince you, that it would be an affront to virtue to fuppofe, that old-age to a man endowed with fuch principles and difpofitions, could poffibly have been a state of infelicity. It must be acknowledged at the fame time, that it is not in every one's power to be a Maximus, or a Scipio; to enliven the gloom of declining years by the animating recollection of the towns he has taken, the battles he has won, and the triumphs that have honoured his fuccefsful arms. But it is not the great and fplendid actions of the hero, or the statesman alone, that lead to an easy and agreeable

agreeable old age: that feafon of life may prove equally placid and ferene, to him who hath paffed all his days in the filent and retired paths of elegant and learned leisure. Of this kind, we are told, was the old age of Plato, who continued to employ himself with great fatisfaction in his philofophical studies, 'till death put an end to them in his eighty-first year. Such too was that of Ifocrates, who is faid to have composed his famous difcourfe intituled Panathenaicus, in the ninety-fourth year

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a

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This performance feems to have been intituled Panathenaicus, from the subject rather than from its being defigned to be spoken at that anniversary feftival instituted in honour of Minerva, called Panathenaica; as it principally turns on celebrating the merit of those patriotic Athenians who were dif tinguished in the annals of that state, by having deferved well of their country. It appears to have been compofed at a later period of life even than Cicero names; for the author himself declares in this piece, that he was ninety-feven at the time he wrote it, and labouring alfo under a very weak state

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of his age and his death did not happen 'till five years afterwards. His preceptor Leontinus Gorgias lived to complete his one hundred and seventh year; continuing his ftudies with undiminished spirit and application to his laft moments. This celebrated veteran being asked, why he did not put an end to fuch a tedious length of life?" Becaufe," said he, "I find no reason to complain of old-age:" an answer truly noble and altogether worthy of a philofopher! The truth is, they whofe conduct has not been governed by the principles of wisdom and virtue, are apt to impute to old-age thofe infirmities for which their former irregularities are alone accountable. Far different were

the

of health. But neither age, nor infirmities had fubdued the spirit and genius of this extraordinary veteran: Cicero in his treatife infcribed the Orator, fpeaks of this piece as a compofition remarkable for the artificial arrangement and harmony of its periods; and Valerius Maximus files it a work Ardentis Spiritus plenum.

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the sentiments of Ennius; whom I just now had occafion to quote: He compares his declining years to those of a generous fteed

“Who victor oft in fam'd Olympia's fields, "To fweet repofe his age-worn members yields."

You are not too young, my friends, to remember the person of this veteran poet; for his death happened fo late as the confulate of Cæpio and Philippus, which is not more than nineteen years And let me obferve by the way, ago. although I was at that time full fixtyfive years of age, I fpoke in defence of the voconian law with great exertion of voice and vehemence of action.22 But I was going to remark, that this venerable bard, who lived to seventy, bore under age up and indigence with fuch wonderful chearfulness and good humour, that one would almost have imagined he derived even a fatisfaction from thofe circumftances which the generality of mankind look upon as,

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