and Consul, and Governor of a province were among the
number. But he had taken early in life to literature and philosophy, and
eschewed the crowd of "Fish-ponders," such as were Antony and Dolabella,
men prone to indulge the luxury of their own senses. His idea of liberty
seems to have been much the same as Cicero's--the liberty to live as one
of the first men in Rome; but it was not accompanied, as it was with
Cicero, by an innate desire to do good to those around him. To maintain
the Praetors, Consuls, and Governors so that each man high in position
should win his way to them as he might be able to obtain the voices of
the people, and not to leave them to be bestowed at the call of one man
who had thrust himself higher than all--that seems to have been his
_beau ideal_ of Roman government. It was Cicero's also--with the
addition that when he had achieved his high place he should serve the
people honestly. Brutus had killed Caesar, but had spared Antony,
thinking that all things would fall into their accustomed places when
the tyrant should be no more. But he found that Caesar had been tyrant
long enough to create a lust for tyranny; and that though he might
suffice to kill a king, he had no aptitude for ruling a people.

It was now that those scenes took place which Shakspeare has described
with such accuracy--the public funeral, Antony's oration, and the rising
of the people against the conspirators. Antony, when he found that no
plan had been devised for carrying on the government, and that the men
were struck by amazement at the deed they had themselves done, collected
his thoughts and did his best to put himself in Caesar's place. Cicero
had pleaded in the Senate for a general amnesty, and had carried it as
far as the voice of the Senate could do so. But the amnesty only
intended that men should pretend to think that all should be forgotten
and forgiven. There was no forgiving, as there could be no forgetting.
Then Caesar's will was brought forth. They could not surely dispute his
will or destroy it. In this way Antony got hold of the dead man's
papers, and with the aid of the dead man's private secretary or
amanuensis, one Fabricius, began a series of most unblushing forgeries.
He procured, or said that he procured, a decree to be passed confirming
by law all Caesar's written purposes. Such a decree he could use to any
extent to which he could carry with him the sympathies of the people. He
did use it to a great e