Atticus, he is condemned for treachery, whereas the sentences in which
he has thoughtfully declared the purposes of his very soul are counted
as clap-traps.

No one has been so frequently condemned out of his mouth as Cicero, and
naturally. In these modern days we have contemporary records as to
prominent persons. Of the characters of those who lived in long-past
ages we generally fail to have any clear idea, because we lack those
close chronicles which are necessary for the purpose. What insight have
we into the personality of Alexander the Great, or what insight had
Plutarch, who wrote about him? As to Samuel Johnson, we seem to know
every turn of his mind, having had a Boswell. Alexander had no Boswell.
But here is a man belonging to those past ages of which I speak who was
his own Boswell, and after such a fashion that, since letters were
invented, no records have ever been written in language more clear or
more attractive. It is natural that we should judge out of his own mouth
one who left so many more words behind him than did any one else,
particularly one who left words so pleasant to read. And all that he
wrote was after some fashion about himself. His letters, like all
letters, are personal to himself. His speeches are words coming out of
his own mouth about affairs in which he was personally engaged and
interested. His rhetoric consists of lessons given by himself about his
own art, founded on his own experience, and on his own observation of
others. His so-called philosophy gives us the workings of his own mind.
No one has ever told the world so much about another person as Cicero
has told the world about Cicero. Boswell pales before him as a
chronicler of minutiae. It may be a matter of small interest now to the
bulk of readers to be intimately acquainted with a Roman who was never
one of the world's conquerors. It may be well for those who desire to
know simply the facts of the world's history, to dismiss as unnecessary
the aspirations of one who lived so long ago. But if it be worth while
to discuss the man's character, it must be worth while to learn the
truth about it.

"Oh that mine adversary had written a book!" Who does not understand the
truth of these words! It is always out of a man's mouth that you may
most surely condemn him. Cicero wrote many books, and all about himself.
He has been honored very highly. Middleton, in the preface to his own
biography, which, with all its charms, has become