character, and
discovers in the author imaginative powers, which, celebrated as he
justly is for playfulness of fancy, might yet appear more the talent of
the poet than the orator.

His treatise _De Divinatione_ is conveyed in a discussion between his
brother Quintus and himself, in two books. In the former, Quintus, after
dividing Divination into the heads of natural and artificial, argues
with the Stoics for its sacred nature, from the evidence of facts, the
agreement of all nations, and the existence of divine intelligences. In
the latter, Cicero questions its authority, with Carneades, from the
uncertain nature of its rules, the absurdity and uselessness of the art,
and the possibility of accounting from natural causes for the phenomena
on which it was founded. This is a curious work, from the numerous cases
adduced from the histories of Greece and Rome to illustrate the subject
in dispute.

His treatise _De Fato_ is quite a fragment; it purports to be the
substance of a dissertation in which he explained to Hirtius (soon after
Consul) the sentiments of Chrysippus, Diodorus, Epicurus, Carneades, and
others, upon that abstruse subject. It is supposed to have consisted at
least of two books, of which we have but the proem of the first, and a
small portion of the second.

In his beautiful compositions, _De Senectute_ and _De Amicitia_, Cato
the censor and Laelius are respectively introduced, delivering their
sentiments on those subjects. The conclusion of the former, in which
Cato discourses on the immortality of the soul, has been always
celebrated; and the opening of the latter, in which Fannius and Scaevola
come to console Laelius on the death of Scipio, is as exquisite an
instance of delicacy and taste in composition as can be found in his
works. In the latter he has borrowed largely from the eighth and ninth
books of Aristotle's _Ethics_.

His treatise _De Officiis_ was finished about the time he wrote his
second Philippic, a circumstance which illustrates the great versatility
of his mental powers. Of a work so extensively celebrated, it is enough
to have mentioned the name. Here he lays aside the less authoritative
form of dialogue, and, with the dignity of the Roman Consul, unfolds, in
his own person, the principles of morals, according to the views of the
older schools, particularly of the Stoics. It is written in three
books, with great perspicuity and elegance of style; the first book
treats of the _hon