could it have been that,
seeing _Caesar_, we should ask for _Caesar_? That we should ask, where is
his unequall'd Greatness of Mind, his unbounded Thirst of Glory, and that
victorious Eloquence, with which he triumph'd over the Souls of both
Friends and Enemies, and with which he rivall'd _Cicero_ in Genius as he
did _Pompey_ in Power? How fair an Occasion was there to open the
Character of _Caesar_ in the first Scene between _Brutus_ and _Cassius_?
For when _Cassius_ tells _Brutus_ that _Caesar_ was but a Man like them,
and had the same natural Imperfections which they had, how natural had it
been for _Brutus_ to reply, that _Caesar_ indeed had their Imperfections of
Nature, but neither he nor _Cassius_ had by any means the great Qualities
of _Caesar_: neither his Military Virtue, nor Science, nor his matchless
Renown, nor his unparallell'd Victories, his unwearied Bounty to his
Friends, nor his Godlike Clemency to his Foes, his Beneficence, his
Munificence, his Easiness of Access to the meanest _Roman_, his
indefatigable Labours, his incredible Celerity, the Plausibleness if not
Justness of his Ambition, that knowing himself to be the greatest of Men,
he only sought occasion to make the World confess him such. In short, if
_Brutus_, after enumerating all the wonderful Qualities of _Caesar_, had
resolv'd in spight of them all to sacrifice him to publick Liberty, how
had such a Proceeding heighten'd the Virtue and the Character of _Brutus_?
But then indeed it would have been requisite that _Caesar_ upon his
Appearance should have made all this good. And as we know no Principle of
human Action but human Sentiment only, _Caesar_, who did greater Things,
and had greater Designs than the rest of the _Romans_, ought certainly to
have outshin'd by many Degrees all the other Characters of his Tragedy.
_Caesar_ ought particularly to have justified his Actions, and to have
heighten'd his Character, by shewing that what he had done, he had done by
Necessity; that the _Romans_ had lost their _Agrarian_, lost their
Rotation of Magistracy, and that consequently nothing but an empty Shadow
of publick Liberty remain'd; that the _Gracchi_ had made the last noble
but unsuccessful Efforts for the restoring the Commonwealth, that they had
fail'd for want of arbitrary irresistible Power, the Restoration of the
_Agrarian_ requiring too vast a Retrospect to be done without it; that the
Government, when _Caesar_ came to publick Affairs, was got