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by a foreign impulse is inanimate, but that which is animate is impelled by an inward and peculiar principle of motion; and in that consists the nature and property of the soul. Now if it alone of all things is self-motive, assuredly it never was originated, and is eternal. Do thou therefore employ it in the noblest of pursuits, and the noblest of cares are those for the safety of thy country. The soul that is stirred and agitated by these will fly the more quickly to this mansion, even to its own home,* and this will be the more rapid, if, become related to extension, in order to its having any knowledge of motion, or to its being able to avail itself of the measurement of duration; in other words, it is only in connexion with matter that it can know anything of time.

"Minds embodied, not only learn to measure out their own existence equally, and to correct the illusions of which otherwise they would be the sport, but also, by an insensible habit, they come to exist at a more even velocity, if we may so speak, than could else be possible, and learn unconsciously to put a curb upon the excessive and dangerous rapidity of thought; while in other cases a spur is supplied for the sluggishness of the mind, or a remedy found for its undue fixedness; and thus all minds are brought to move together at nearly the same rate, or at least as nearly so as is essential for securing the order and harmony of the social system.

"But then, this same intimate connexion between mind and matter, while it exposes the mind, passively, to the influence of the inferior element, becomes in return the means of its exerting a power-and how extensive and mysterious a power is it-over the solid matter around it. Mind, embodied, by a simple act or volition, originates motion. That is to say, its will or desire, through the instrumentality of muscular contractions, as applied to the body itself, or to other bodies, puts it or them in movement. This power of the mind in overcoming the vis inertia of matter and the force of gravitation, is the only active influence in relation to the material world which we have a certain knowledge of its possessing; for, as is obvious, the various combinations of substances that are brought about by the skill of man, are all indirectly effected through the instrumentality of the muscular system; nor can it be ascertained, whether the chemical changes and assimilations that are carried on in the secreting glands and the viscera are effected by an unconsious involuntary mental operation. This organic influence excepted, supposing it to exist, the mechanical power of the mind is the only one it enjoys; but this it enjoys in no mean degree. It may, without much hazard, be assumed, that motion in all instances originates in an immediate volition, either of the supreme or of some created mind, and that this power is exerted by the latter through the means of a corporeal structure."Taylor's Physical Theory of Another Life, chap. ii.

We cannot better conclude our notes on this interesting fragment, than by the peroration of that sermon of the late Robert Hall which was possibly suggested by this passage, as indeed some of the greatest beauties of that discourse seem to have been, by passages from the foregoing treatises of Cicero :

even now, while it is imprisoned within the body it sallies abroad, and, contemplating those objects that are without it, abstracts itself as much as possible from the body. For the souls of those men who are devoted to corporeal pleasures themselves, and who having yielded themselves as it were as their servants, enslaved to pleasures under the impulse of their passions, have violated the laws of gods and men; such souls, having escaped from their bodies, hover round the earth, nor do they return to this place, till they have been tossed about for many ages." He vanished, and I awoke from my sleep.

"To that state all the pious on earth are tending, and if there is a law from whose operation none are exempt, which inevitably conveys their bodies to darkness and to dust, there is another not less certain, or less powerful, which conducts their spirits to the abodes of bliss, to the bosom of their Father and their God. The wheels of nature are not made to roll backward. Everything presses on to eternity. From the birth of time an impetuous current has set in, which bears all the sons of men towards that interminable ocean. Meanwhile, heaven is attracting to itself, whatever is congenial to its nature, is enriching itself by the spoils of the earth, and collecting within its capacious bosom whatever is pure, permanent, and divine, leaving nothing for the last fire to consume but the objects and slaves of concupiscence; while everything which grace has prepared and beautified, shall be gathered and selected from the ruins of the world to adorn that eternal city.

"Let us obey the voice that calls us thither; let us seek the things that are above, and no longer cleave to a world which must shortly perish, and which we must shortly quit, while we neglect to prepare for that in which we are invited to dwell for ever. While everything within us and around us reminds us of the approach of death, and concurs to teach us that this is not our rest, let us hasten our preparations for another world, and earnestly implore that grace which alone can put an end to that fatal war which our desires have too long waged with our destiny. When these move in the same direction, and that which the will of Heaven renders unavoidable, shall become our choice, all things will be ours;-life will be divested of its vanity, and death disarmed of its terrors ?"-Hall's Funeral Sermon for Dr. Ryland.

X

ON THE

DUTIES OF A MAGISTRATE.

ADDRESSED TO HIS BROTHER QUINTUS.*

THOUGH I doubt not that many messengers and indeed that rumour itself with characteristic rapidity will have outstripped this letter, and that you will already have heard that a third year has been added to your labours, and to our impatience, yet I have thought that the announcement of this annoyance should be made to you by me also. For while every one else despaired of the success, I still, by repeated letters, gave you hopes of an early return, not only that I might amuse you as long as possible with that pleasing expectation, but because I did not doubt that through the strong interest made both by me and the prætors the object might be accomplished. Now as it has so happened that neither the prætors by their interest, nor I by my zeal, were able to effect any thing, it is certainly difficult not to feel mortification at it, but yet we ought never to suffer our minds which are employed in managing and supporting the arduous affairs of government to be crushed or dejected by misfortune. And because men ought to be most annoyed by those ills which are incurred by their own faults, there is in this transaction somewhat more afflicting to me than ought to be to you, for it happened by my misconduct contrary to your understanding with me when parting, and subsequently

* Quintus Cicero was at this time proprætor of Asia Minor.

In the original "non dubitabam." The Roman idiom in epistolary writing, is that the verbs by which the writer expresses a present action or state, are put in the past tense; that is, as it will appear, to the person who subsequently reads the letter.

by letters, that your successor was not named last year. This I did unwisely, with a view of consulting the welfare of our allies, of crushing the presumptuousness of certain traders, and with the desire of increasing my own glory through your merits; especially as I effected the result of a third year being added to that second.

Having thus frankly acknowledged that it was my fault, it is the part of your wisdom and kindness to take care and manage that this which has been unwisely schemed by me may be corrected by your diligence; and surely, if you exert yourself in all the duties of government so as to seem to vie not only with others but with yourself, if you call in use all your faculties, all your attention, all your thought, to that love of glory, which is so powerfully prevalent in all transactions, believe me, that one year added to your toil will bring many years of pleasure to us, and even glory to our posterity. Wherefore, I in the first place beg of you, that you will not suffer your spirit to be damped or diminished, nor yourself to be overwhelmed, as with a flood, by the multitude of business; but that, on the contrary, you will arouse yourself, and make a firm stand, even if you spontaneously incur it; for you do not bear a part in such a government as is governed by fortune, but one in which discretion and diligence has the greatest influence. Had I seen your command prolonged at a time when you were involved in the management of some great and dangerous war, then I should have been disquieted in my mind, because I should have been sensible that the power of fortune over us was prolonged at the same time. But since that department of the state has been committed to you in which fortune has very little or no part, it seems to me to depend entirely on your own virtue and wisdom. We apprehend, I think, no treachery of enemies; no revolt of our allies; no want of money or scarcity of provisions, and no mutiny in the army. Yet these have often happened to the wisest of men, who are forced to yield to the assaults of

* Traders. "Several complaints had been carried to Rome against Quintus, and Cicero thought that his brother remaining another year in his government might have stifled them. The reader is to observe that this government was the province of Asia Minor, one of the best the Romans had, and that a great many merchants resided there for the benefit of commerce.."-Guthrie.

fortune, as the best of pilots sometimes are to the violence of a tempest.

The most profound peace and perfect tranquillity has fallen to your lot; but though those are circumstances that may well give pleasure to a vigilant steersman, yet they may be fatal to a sleeping one. For your province is composed, first of that kind of allies, who of all the human race are the most humanized; and in the next place of those Roman citizens, who either as farmers of the public revenues, are most intimately connected with me,* or, having so traded as to have become rich, consider they possess their fortunes in security through the beneficial influence of my consular administration. Yet even among these very men serious disputes exist, many injustices are committed, and great contentions are the consequence; and, thinking thus, I am sensible that you have not a little business upon your hands. I know that this business is very important, and requires great wisdom. But still remember that I maintain, that this is a business which rather requires wisdom than good fortune. If you restrain yourself, how easy is it to restrain those you govern. This may indeed be a great and difficult matter to others, as indeed it is a most difficult achievement; but the practice of it was ever easy to you; and well it might be, as your disposition is such that it seems capable of moderation even without harming; while such an education has been enjoyed by you as would be capable of correcting the most vicious nature. When you check, as you do, the passion for money, for pleasure, and for all other things, can there be forsooth any danger of your being unable to restrain a dishonest trader, or a too rapacious publican ? For even the Greeks, when they behold your living in this manner, will think that some one

* So Cicero in his speech in support of the Manilian Law, says, in speaking of this same class:-" Equitibus Romanis honestissimis viris, afferuntur ex Asia quotidie literæ quorum magnæ res aguntur, in vestris vectigalibus exercendis occupatæ ; qui ad me, pro neccessitudine, quæ mihi est cum illo ordine, causam rei publicæ periculaque rerum suarum detulerunt." "Letters are daily brought from Asia, from Roman knights, most honourable men largely engaged in the farming of your revenues, who, in consideration of the close relationship which subsists between me and that order, have laid before me the cause of the state and the jeopardy of thei own interests."

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