the very line of the enemy we shall find friends. The Britons, the Gauls, the Germans, will recognize their own cause in ours. Here is a leader; here an army! There are tributes, and levies, and badges of servitude, impositions, which to assume, or to trample under foot forever, lies now in the power of your arms. Forth, then, Caledonians to the field! Think of your ancestors! Think of your descendants 15. ICILIUS ON VIRGINIA'S SEIZURE.-T. B. Macaulay. Now by your children's cradles, - now, by your fathers' graves, Be men to-day, Quirités, or be forever slaves! For this did Servius give us laws? For this did Lucrece bleed? O for the tents which in old time whitened the Sacred Hill! No Tribune breathes the word of might, that guards the weak from wrong. Our very hearts, that were so high, sink down beneath your will. Riches, and lands, and power, and state-ye have them:-keep them still. Still keep the holy fillets; still keep the purple gown, The axes and the curule chair, the car, and laurel crown Still fill your garners from the soil which our good swords have won The sweet, sweet love of daughter, of sister, and of wife; Spare us the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame, That turns the coward's heart to steel, the sluggard's blood to flame, Lest, when our latest hope is fled, ye taste of our despair, And learn, by proof, in some wild hour, how much the wretched dare 16 THE SPARTANS' MARCH.-Felicia Hemans. Born, 1794; died, 1835. The Spartans used not the trumpet in their march into battle, says Thucydides, because they wished not to excite the rage of their warriors. Their charging-step was made to the Derian mood of flutes and soft recorders. T WAS morn upon the Grecian hills, where peasants dressed the vines; 17. THE GREEKS' RETURN FROM BATTLE. — Ibid. Io! they come, they come! garlands for every shrine! Let the Cittern's tone salute the sons of victory. With the offering of bright blood, they have ransomed hearth and tomb, Vineyard, and field, and flood; Io! they come, they come ' Sing it where olives wave, and by the glittering sea, And o'er each hero's grave, sing, sing, the land is free! Mark ye the flashing oars, and the spears that light the deep! Who murmured of the dead? Hush, boding voice! We know Breathe not those names to-day! They shall have their praise ere long But now shed flowers, pour wine, to hail the conquerors home 18. ODE.-William Collins. Born, 1720; died, 1750. 19. VIRGINIUS, AS TRIBUNE, REFUSES THE APPEAL OF APPIUS CLAUDIUS. -Original Paraphrase from Livy. I AFFIRM, O Romans, that Appius Claudius is the only man not entitled to a participation in the laws, nor to the common privileges of civil or human society. The tribunal over which, as perpetual Decemvir, he presided, was made the fortress of all villanies. A despiser of Gods and men, he vented his fury on the properties and persons of citizens, threatening all with his rods and axes. Executioners, not Lictors, were his attendants. His passions roaming from rapine to murder, from murder to lust, he tore a free-born maiden, as if she were a prisoner of war, from the embraces of me, her father, before the eyes of the Roman People, and gave her to his creature, the purveyor of his secret pleasures! Ye heard, my countrymen, the cruel decree, the infamous decision. Ye beheld the right hand of the father armed against his daughter. Armed against, do I say? No, by the Gods! armed in her behalf,- since it was to rescue her, by death, from dishonor, that I sheathed in her innocent bosom the knife! Ye heard the tyrant, when the uncle and the betrothed husband of Virginia raised her lifeless body, order them to be taken off to prison. Yes, Romans, even at that tragical moment, the miscreant Claudius was more moved by the disappointment of his gross sensual appetite than by the untimely death of the unoffending victim! And Appius Claudius now appeals! You hear his words. "] appeal!" This man, who, so recently, as Decemvir, would have consigned a free-born maiden to bonds and to dishonor, utters that sacred expression that safeguard of Roman liberty," I appeal!" Well may ye stand awe-struck and silent, O my countrymen! Ye see, at length, that there are Gods who overlook human affairs; that there is such a thing as RETRIBUTION! Ye see that punishment must sooner er later overtake all tyranny and injustice. The man who abcuished the right of appeal now appeals! The man who trampled on the rights of the People now implores the protection of the People! And, finally, the man who used to call the prison the fitting domicile of the Roman commons' shall now find that it was built for him also. Wherefore, Appius Claudius, though thou shouldst appeal, again and again, to me, the Tribune of the People, I will as often refer thee to a Judge, on the charge of having sentenced a free person to slavery. And since thou wilt not go before a Judge, well knowing that justice will condemn thee to death, I hereby order thee to be taken hence to prison, as one condemned. 20. CANULEIUS AGAINST PATRICIAN ARROGANCE Original Paraphrase from Livy. THIS is not the first time, O Romans, that Patrician arrogance has denied to us the rights of a common humanity. What do we now demand? First, the right of intermarriage; and then, that the People may confer honors on whom they please. And why, in the name of Roman manhood, my countrymen,- why should these poor boons be refused? Why, for claiming them, was I near being assaulted, just now, in the senate-house? Will the city no longer stand, - will the empire be dissolved,- because we claim that Plebeians shall no longer be excluded from the Consulship? Truly these Patricians will, by and by, begrudge us a participation in the light of day; they will be indignant that we breathe the same air; that we share with them the faculty of speech; that we wear the forms of human beings! But I cry them mercy. They tell us it is contrary to religion that a Plebeian should be made Consul! The ancient religion of Rome forbids it! Ah! verily? How will they reconcile this pretence to the facts? Though not admitted to the archives, nor to the commentaries of the Pontiffs, there are some notorious facts, which, in common with the rest of the world, we well know. We know that there were Kings before there were Consuls in Rome. We know that Consuls possess no prerogative, no dignity, not formerly inherent in Kings. We know that Numa Pompilius was made King at Rome, who was not only not a Patrician, but not even a citizen; that Lucius Tarquinius, who was not even of Italian extraction, was made King; that Servius Tullius, who was the son of a captive woman by an unknown father, was made King. And shall Plebeians, who formerly were not excluded from the Throne, now, on the juggling plea of religious objec tion, be debarred from the Consulship? But it is not enough that the offices of the State are withheld from us. To keep pure their dainty blood, these Patricians would prevent, by law, all intermarriage of members of their order with Plebeians Could there be a more marked indignity, a more humiliating insult, than this? Why not legislate against our living in the same neigh borhood, dwelling under the same skies, walking the same earth? Ignominy not to be endured! Was it for this we expelled Kings? Was it for this that we exchanged one master for many? No! Let the rights we claim be admitted, or let the Patricians fight the battles of the State themselves. Let the public offices be open to all; let every invidious law in regard to marriage be abolished; or, by the Gods of our fathers, let there be no levy of troops to achieve victories, in the benefits of which the People shall not most amply and equally partake! 21. CATILINE TO IIIS ARMY, NEAR FÆSŬLÆ. —Ben Jonson. Born, 1574 ; died, 1037. A paraphrase of the celebrated speech which Sallust attributes to Catiline, previous to the engagement which ended in the rout of his army, and his own death. I NEVER yet knew, Soldiers, that in fight Or that a General's oration made An army fall or stand: but how much prowess, Was owner of, so much in act it showed. Two armies wait us, Soldiers; one from Rome Nor friend, to shelter those whom their own fortune Or safe at Rome, depending on the great, But that you thought those things unfit for men; And, in that thought, my friends, you then were valiant. For no man ever yet changed peace for war But he that meant to conquer. Hold that purpose. There's more necessity you should be such, In fighting for yourselves, than they for others. He's base who trusts his feet, whose hands are armed. What we will do, and all the Heaven at leisure |