credit
for a desire to do good; and the names of the two brothers, rebels as
they were, have come down to us with a sweet savor about them. Caesar, on
the other hand, was no doubt of the same political party. He too was
opposed to the oligarchs, but it never occurred to him that he could
save the Republic by any struggles after freedom. His mind was not given
to patriotism of that sort--not to memories, not to associations. Even
laws were nothing to him but as they might be useful. To his thinking,
probably even in his early days, the state of Rome required a master.
Its wealth, its pleasures, its soldiers, its power, were there for any
one to take who could take them--for any one to hold who could hold
them. Mr. Beesly, the last defender of Catiline, has stated that very
little was known in Rome of Caesar till the time of Catiline's
conspiracy, and in that I agree with him. He possessed high family rank,
and had been Quaestor and AEdile; but it was only from this year out that
his name was much in men's mouths, and that he was learning to look into
things. It may be that he had previously been in league with
Catiline--that he was in league with him till the time came for the
great attempt. The evidence, as far as it goes, seems to show that it
was so. Rome had been the prey of many conspiracies. The dominion of
Marius and the dominion of Sulla had been effected by conspiracies. No
doubt the opinion was strong with many that both Caesar and Crassus, the
rich man, were concerned with Catiline. But Caesar was very far-seeing,
and, if such connection existed, knew how to withdraw from it when the
time was not found to be opportune. But from first to last he always was
opposed to the oligarchy. The various steps from the Gracchi to him were
as those which had to be made from the Girondists to Napoleon. Catiline,
no doubt, was one of the steps, as were Danton and Robespierre steps.
The continuation of steps in each case was at first occasioned by the
bad government and greed of a few men in power. But as Robespierre was
vile and low, whereas Vergniaud was honest and Napoleon great, so was it
with Catiline between the Gracchi and Caesar. There is, to my thinking,
no excuse for Catiline in the fact that he was a natural step, not even
though he were a necessary step, between the Gracchi and Caesar.

I regard as futile the attempts which are made to rewrite history on the
base of moral convictions and philosophical conclusion.