Rome and he therefore made an ad captandum speech, in which he ridiculed the nice technicalities of Scævola, and amused the court with anecdotes and jokes. He showed that the generality of men do not express themselves with the precision of lawyers, and that what they write must not be taken au pied de lettre. If wills were to be construed so strictly, he said, every testator ought to have a Scævola at his side, and what captious wiredrawing and hair-splitting of words there would be if courts looked only at what was actually written, and did not consider the wishes and intentions of the writer. A fine share of practice Scævola would have if no one dared to make a will which was not technically correct! By this style of argument Crassus had the laugh on his side, and the result was, as we have seen, that his client was successful.

We know the names of several other causes in which he was engaged, but it is useless to mention them when all that have survived are a few sentences, which have lost their force from the absence of the context; or jests, which after the lapse of nineteen centuries, seem, like most of the Roman witticisms, wonderfully deficient in point. Cicero has preserved one spirited passage from the speech in which Crassus supported the bili brought forward by Servilius Cæpio, for transferring the judicial authority from the equestrian order to the senate. Addressing the assembled multitude of Roman citizens, he exclaimed, "Save us from our misery; snatch us from the jaws of those whose ferocity can not be satiated with our blood; let us not be the servants of any master but yourselves; you, whom it is our duty to serve, and whom we can serve without dishonor" (De Orat. i. 52).

Crassus and Antony, as is well known, are the chief speakers in the famous dialogue De Oratore. The scene is laid at Tusculum, in the villa of Crassus, to which he is represented by Cicero as having retired for a few days, in order to recruit his health and spirits, h of which

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had suffered in the violent political contests which were then agitating Rome. Thither had come to enjoy the society of Crassus, his father-in-law, Quintus Mucius Scævola, the great lawyer, and Antony, his rival, but at the same time most intimate friend; and Caius Cotta, and Publius Sulpicius, who both in early youth gave bright promise of future eminence. The first day was devoted to politics, the state of which at Rome, while the attacks of the consul Philippus were directed against the authority of the senate, caused apprehension in the minds of the three elder Romans, who, being themselves senators, felt for the dignity of their order. The next day, at the suggestion of Scævola, they seated themselves under the shade of a wide-spreading tree, and the conversation was directed by Crassus to the subject of eloquence. It would lead us beyond the limits of our present inquiry to attempt anything like an analysis of the dialogue which is then supposed to have taken place. Nor could an epitome of the contents of these delightful books give any just or adequate idea of their excellence. They must be perused in the original to be appreciated. We shall then have some notion of the genius of Cicero, whose works are "a library of eloquence and reason," and of the unrivaled charm of his style, which, like the wand of an enchanter, converts whatever it touches into gold.

He mentions an anecdote of Crassus and Hortensius which redounds little to the credit of these two distinguished Romans. Minucius Basilus had died while in Greece, possessed of considerable wealth; and a forged will was produced at Rome by some parties; who, in order to protect their own knavery, had inserted the names of Crassus and Hortensius, both then in the zenith of their fame, as co-heirs with themselves of the deceased. And Cicero says that although they suspected the fraud they did not scruple to avail themselves of the forgery. Such conduct seems to us incredible in men of

the position and character of the two great orators; but it is one of the many proofs how little heathen morality can be depended upon, " and even as they did not like. to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient."

Sulpicius is a name illustrious among Roman lawyers from the reputation gained by two members of that family, Publius and Servius. The former was the less celebrated of the two, but his career was cut short by a premature death in the convulsion of civil war. He espoused the side of Marius, and when Sylla, who had been compelled by the outbreak of an insurrection to abandon Rome, returned from Nola with his legions and took forcible possession of the city, Sulpicius was with many others proscribed and perished in his attempt to escape. The great cause in which he distinguished himself, was that of Norbanus, whom, at the age of thirty, he defended, and was, as has been noticed, opposed by Antony. Cicero says that he was of all the advocates of his time the one who might most justly be called "a grand and tragic orator." His style was lofty and impassioned, his action graceful and easy, his voice sweet and powerful, his language nervous and spirited. But although he was much engaged in the conduct of causes, he left no records of his eloquence behind him, as he never committed any of his speeches to writing, and, indeed, frankly confessed that he was unable to compose.

We now come to the name of Servius Sulpicius, which is so associated in our minds with that of Cicero

"The Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind."

His celebrated and beautiful letter to Tully, and affectionate attempt to assuage the grief of the afflicted father weeping for the loss of his daughter, powerfully excites our sympathies even at this distance of time. But who can read it without feeling how poor and vain were the

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topics of consolation which pagan philosophy could supply to soothe a mourner's sorrow when compared with the hope full of immortality that bids the Christian look beyond the grave? What are general reflections. upon the desolation of cities once flourishing in all the pomp and pride of power, but now laid waste in ruinous heaps, in comparison with those few simple words, so full of the deepest meaning, "I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord; and the calm assurance we have concerning them who are asleep, so that we "sorrow not even as others which have no hope?"

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But to turn from this digression, and pursue no further the train of thought which the name of Servius Sulpicius has awakened. He stands with Mucius Scavola at the head of the Roman jurists in the time of the republic; and it was to a rebuke from the latter that he owed his fame; for having occasion to apply to that great legal authority for advice in a cause in which he was engaged, he showed himself so unable to understand. the learning of the black letter lawyer, that Scævola was provoked to exclaim, "It is disgraceful to a man who professes to be an advocate, to be ignorant of law" (Pomponius de Origine Juris. Dig. I. ii. § 43). Stung by this reproach, Servius from that day devoted himself to the study of the jus civile with such ardor and success, that his reputation as a jurist became greater than that of Scævola himself. Cicero indeed says, that no one of his countrymen was to be compared with him in legal attainments. But although he is lavish in praise of his learning as a lawyer, he speaks slightingly of him as an orator. Not so, however, Quintilian and Pomponius, the latter of whom places him in the first rank as an advocate. We may easily imagine that, in comparison with his profound learning, the graces of his eloquence were but lightly appreciated. Having opposed L. Murena unsuccessfully as a candidate for the consulship, he ac

cused his competitor of bribery and corruption; but Murena was defended by Cicero, and acquitted.

In his speech on that occasion, Cicero wittily contrasts the qualifications of Sulpicius, the peaceful civilian, for the honor to which he aspired, with those of Murena, who had served with distinction as a soldier under his own father, in the war against Mithridates in Asia Minor. "Can there be a doubt," he says, that to obtain the office of consul, a military is much more useful than a legal reputation? You steal hours from sleep, in order to write opinions for your clients; he, that he may arrive early with his army at the place to which he is marching; you are awakened by the crowing of the cock, he by the clang of trumpets. You draw pleadings. on paper, he draws up troops on the battle-field; you take care that verdicts, he, that cities and camps, are not lost; he knows how hostile squadrons are repelled, you, when actions of trespass lie; he is versed in the arts of enlarging boundaries, you, in preserving landmarks. In good truth (to speak my real opinion), martial renown carries the day against all competitors." Sulpicius, thus disappointed, gave up public life for a time, and devoted himself for the next two years to the assiduous practice of his profession, pleading in the courts, and giving opinions to clients who consulted him. on points of law. He died while absent from Rome on an embassy to Antony, the triumvir, who was then in arms at Mutina, and Cicero proposed that a brazen tab

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1

Tu, ut aquæ pulviæ arceantur;" literally, "how rain-water is kept off." The right to let rain-water run upon a neighbor's roof, was an important easement or servitus at Rome, called stillicidium; and where this was improperly exercised, an action, such as we should call “trespass," or trespass upon the case" according to the circumstances, would lie. It has been held in our Courts that, if a man builds a house so near that of another that it shoots water upon the latter, the person injured may enter upon the owner's soil and pull it down. R. v. Rosewell, 2 Salk, 459. But there is an important proviso to be borne in mind, namely, that no person is in the house at the time. See Perry v. Fitzhowe, 8 Q. B. 776.