y the safe place
that it was to him under Caesar's rule. He would have fared as badly at
their hands as he did at those of the Clodian rabble, and Pompeius might
have been to him what Antonius became after Caesar's death.

The portrait which Mr. Merivale has drawn of Cato does not meet with the
approval of those persons who admire old Roman virtue, of which Cato
was the impersonation; but they would find it difficult to show that he
has done that stubborn Stoic any injustice. Cato modelled himself on his
great-grandfather, Cato the Censor, a mean fellow, who sold his old
slaves in order that they might not become a charge upon him; but, as
our author remarks, the character of the Censor had been simple and true
to Nature, while that of his descendant was a system of elaborate,
though unconscious affectations. Cato behaved as absurdly as an American
would behave who should attempt to imitate his great-grandfather, the
old gentleman having died a loyal subject of George II. He was an honest
man, according to the Roman standard of honesty, which allowed a great
margin for the worst villany, provided it were done for the public good,
or what was supposed to be the public good. Like some politicians of our
time, he thought, that, when he had made it appear that a certain course
would be in accordance with ancient precedent, it should be
adopted,--making no allowance for the thousand disturbing causes which
the practical politician knows must be found on any path that may be
selected. Of all the men whose conduct brought about the Civil War, he
was the most virtuous, and he had the sagacity to oppose a resort to
arms; though how he succeeded in reconciling his aversion to war with
his support of a policy that led directly to its existence is one of the
mysteries of those days. The Pompeians found him a bore, and, had they
been victorious, would have saved him the trouble of killing himself, by
cutting off his head. Cato was one of the very few persons for whom
Caesar felt a strong dislike; but he would not have harmed him, had he
got his own consent to live. From Cato he had experienced no such insult
as he had met with from M. Marcellus, and Marcellus received permission
to return to Rome; but Cato was of an unmalleable nature, and preferred,
to an ignoble silence in Italy, the noble silence of the grave. He died
"after the high Roman fashion." Suicide might be called the natural
death of a Roman leader of that age, and nothi