particular, had so contrived it, that the stranger should for so great a space of time be debarred the means of doing justice to his brother, until, by the same blow that revenged the death of one innocent man, he preserved the life of another.— ADDISON. From 1672 to 1719. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY. : A MAN who preserves a respect, founded on his benevolence to his dependents, lives rather like a prince than a master in his family his orders are received as favours rather than duties; and the distinction of approaching him is part of the reward for executing what is commanded by him. There is another circumstance in which my friend excels in his management, which is the manner of rewarding his servants; he has ever been of opinion that giving his cast clothes to be worn by valets has a very ill effect upon little minds, and creates a silly sense of equality between the parties, in persons affected only with outward things. I have heard him often pleasant on this occasion, and describe a young gentleman abusing his man in that coat which a month or two before was the most pleasing distinction he was conscious of in himself. He would turn his discourse still more pleasantly upon the ladies' bounties of this kind; and I have heard him say he knew a fine woman who distributed rewards and punishments in giving becoming or unbecoming dresses to her maids. But my good friend is above these little instances of good will, in bestowing only trifles on his servants; a good servant to him is sure of having it in his choice very soon of being no servant at all. As I before observed, he is so good a husband, and knows so thoroughly that the skill of the purse is the cardinal virtue of this life; I say, he knows so well that frugality is the support of generosity that he can often spare a large fine when a tenement falls, and give that settlement to a good servant who has a mind to go into the world, or make a stranger pay the fine to that servant, for his more comfortable maintenance, if he stays in his service. A man of honour and generosity considers it would be miserable to himself to have no will but that of another, though it were of the best person breathing, and for that reason goes on as fast as he is able to put his servants into independent livelihoods. The greatest part of Sir Roger's estate is tenanted by persons who have served himself or his ancestors. It was to me extremely pleasant to observe the visitants from several parts to welcome his arrival into the country; and all the difference that I could take notice of between the late servants who came to see him, and those who stayed in the family, was that these latter were looked upon as finer gentlemen and better courtiers. This manumission and placing them in a way of livelihood I look upon as only what is due to a good servant, which encouragement will make his successor be as diligent, as humble, and as ready as he was. There is something wonderful in the narrowness of those minds which can be pleased, and be barren of bounty to those who please them. One might, on this occasion, recount the sense that great persons in all ages have had of the merit of their dependents and the heroic services which men have done their masters in the extremity of their fortunes; and shown to their undone patrons that fortune was all the difference between them; but as I design this my speculation only as a gentle admonition to thankless masters, I shall not go out of the occurrences of common life, but assert it as a general observation that I never saw, but in Sir Roger's family, and one or two more, good servants treated as they ought to be. Sir Roger's kindness extends to their children's children, and this very morning he sent his coachman's grandson to prentice.ADDISON. CICERO. CICERO saw this memorable entry of his countryman, Marius, who, in that advanced age, was so far from being broken, he says, by his late calamity, that he seemed to be more alert and vigorous than ever, when he heard him recounting to the people, in excuse for the cruelty of his return, the many miseries which he had lately suffered :—that he was driven from that country which he had saved from destruction ;that all his estate was seized and plundered by his enemies; -that he saw his young son also the partner of his distress;-that he was almost drowned in the marshes, and owed his life to the mercy of the Minturnensians ;—that he was forced to fly into Afric in a small bark, and become a suppliant to those to whom he had given kingdoms; but that— since he had recovered his dignity, and all the rest that he had lost, it should be his care not to forfeit that virtue and courage which he had never lost. Marius and Cinna having thus got the Republic into their hands, declared themselves Consuls; but Marius died unexpectedly, as soon almost as he was inaugurated into his new dignity, on the 13th of January, in the 70th year of his age; and, according to the most probable account, of a pleuritic fever. His birth was obscure, though some call it Equestrian, and his education wholly in camps, where he learnt the first rudiments of war under the greatest master of that age, the younger Scipio, who destroyed Carthage; till, by long service, distinguished valour, and a peculiar hardiness and patience of discipline, he advanced himself gradually through all the steps of military honour, with the reputation of a brave and complete soldier. The obscurity of his extraction, which depressed him with the nobility, made him the greater favourite of the people, who, on all occasions of danger, thought him the only man fit to be trusted with their lives and fortunes, or to have the command of a difficult and desperate war; and, in truth, he twice delivered them from the most desperate with which they had ever been threatened by a foreign enemy. Scipio, from the observation of his martial talents, while he had yet but an inferior command in the army, gave a kind of prophetic testimony of his future glory; for being asked by some of his officers, who were supping with him at Numantia, what General the Republic would have in case of any accident to himself, That Man :-replied he, pointing to Marius at the bottom of the table. In the field he was cautious and provident, and, while he was watching the most favourable opportunities of action, affected to take all his measures from augurs and diviners: nor ever gave battle till, by pretended omens and divine admonitions, he had inspired his soldiers with a confidence of victory, so that his enemies dreaded him as something more than mortal; and both friends and foes believed him to act always by a peculiar impulse and direction from the gods. His merit, however, was wholly military, void of every accomplishment of learning, which he openly affected to despise; so that Arpinum had the singular felicity to produce the most glorious contemner, as well as the most illustrious improver, of the arts and eloquence of Rome. He made no figure, therefore, in the gown, nor had any other way of sustaining his authority in the city, than by cherishing the natural jealousy between the Senate and the people; that, by his declared enmity to the one, he might always be at the head of the other, whose favour he managed, not with any view to the public good-for he had nothing in him of the statesman or the patriot-but to the advancement of his private interest and glory. In short, he was crafty, cruel, covetous, perfidious; of a temper and talents greatly serviceable abroad, but turbulent and dangerous at home; an implacable enemy to the nobles, ever seeking occasions to mortify them; and ready to sacrifice the Republic, which he had saved, to his ambition and revenge. After a life spent in the per petual toils of foreign or domestic wars, he died at last in his bed, in a good old age, and in his seventh Consulship-an honour that no Roman before him ever attained; which is urged by Cotta, the Academic, as one argument, amongst others, against the existence of a Providence.-MIDDLETON'S Life of Cicero. From 1683 to 1750. CICERO. THE fate of Rome was now brought to a crisis, and the contending parties were making their last efforts, either to oppress or preserve it: Cicero was the head of those who stood up for its liberty, which entirely depended on the influence of his counsels; he had many years, therefore, been the common mark of the rage and malice of all who were aiming at illegal powers, or a tyranny in the state; and while these were generally supported by the military power of the Empire, he had no other arms or means of defeating them but his authority with the Senate and people, grounded on the experience of his services, and the persuasion of his integrity; so that, to obviate the perpetual calumnies of the factious, he was obliged to inculcate the merit and good effects of his counsels in order to confirm people in their union and adherence to them, against the intrigues of those who were employing all arts to subvert them. The frequent commemoration of his acts, says Quintilian, was not made so much for glory as for defence: to repel calumny, and vindicate his measures when they were attacked. And this is what Cicero himself declared in all his speeches, "That no man ever heard him speak of himself but when he was forced to it; that when he was urged with fictitious crimes, it was his custom to answer them with his real services; and if ever he said anything glorious of himself, it was not thro' a fondness |