To all the other traits of excellence in his character, he added profound convictions of religious truth, firm faith in an overruling Providence, and reverence for the Christian church, of which he was a communicating member.

Chapter Two..

JULIUS CÆSAR.

AIUS JULIUS CAESAR was born on the 12th day of July, 100 years B. C. His father of the same name, was an aristocrat. His mother was of the family of Aurelius Cotta, also aristocratic. From early youth he gave evidence of extraordinary capabilities. He learned with the readiness of intuition; his memory was truly wonderful, forgetting nothing. In his seventeenth year, he procured a divorce from his wife, in order to marry Cornelia, a daughter of Cinna, then a leader of the democratic element. His aunt Julia had married Marius, another leader of the democratic party. Sylla the usurper and dictator, was at the head of the aristocracy, and seeing the superiority of the young Cæsar, sought to win him, and advised him to repudiate his wife, Cornelia. Whether from affection for his wife,

or from the belief that the democracy was the strongest,

Cæsar refused to act upon the advice of Sylla, thereby incurring his bitter hostility. Sylla took from him his wife's dowry, his own property and

his office (Priest of

Jupiter) which he held at that time. Cæsar quit Rome, and went to Asia Minor; remaining there until after Sylla's death. Upon his return, he devoted himself to literature, and especially to the study of eloquence; and with the view of perfecting himself in that art, he set out for Rhodes, to receive the instructions of Molo, who had been master to Cicero. On his way thither, he was captured by pirates, and detained thirty-eight days. He consented to pay thirty talents, over $30,000, and was released, saying if he ever caught them afterwards, he would crucify every mother's son of them. sue them, captured them, and executed them. resumed his studies with great energy.

He did pur

He then In the year 74

before Christ, hearing that he had been chosen one of the pontifices, he returned to Rome, and became what we at this day call a politician, or more properly a demagogue, and excelled all men in that art, as in every other to which he directed his attention. In 65 before Christ, he was elected to the office of Edile, which was connected with the public entertainments, thereby gaining the opportunity of expending large amounts of the public moneys, which he did lavishly, and also squandered his private fortune, leaving him millions in debt. He was unscrupulous in financial transactions; he borrowed all he could, and expended all he had. He was appointed Governor of Spain, but before his departure his creditors

seized him, and his friend Crassus, became his security for five millions of dollars. Upon his return from Spain he formed a coalition with Pompey and Crassus, called the triumvirate. While in Spain he waged a cruel war against some of the native tribes, for the sole purpose of acquiring military fame; upon the strength of which he became a candidate for the republic. He was elected and administered the government with unexampled vigor. His subsequent wars increased his military fame, until he was elected dictator, when he ruled with arbitrary and despotic power, which resulted in his assassination. Judging from his deeds and his writings, from a careful examination of his life, and from the profound impression made upon his contemporaries, and upon succeeding generations, Julius Cæsar was one of the most extraordinary men that ever lived, neither entering the world nor leaving it according to the ordinary laws of nature. The surgeon's knife brought him into the world, the assassin's dagger took him out of it. When quite young, Sylla the usurper, said, "There is many a Marius in that stripling." When grown to manhood, his personal appearance was noble and commanding. He was tall in stature, of a fair complexion, and with black eyes, full of expression. His constitution was originally delicate, but by constant exercise and abstemious living, he acquired strong and vigorous health, and could endure great hardship. He was gifted by nature with the most varied talents, and was distinguished by extraordinary attainments. He was at the same time, a general, a statesman, a law-giver, a jurist, an orator, a poet, an historian, a philologist, a

mathematician and an architect. He was equally fitted to excel in all, and has given proofs that he would have surpassed all other men in any pursuit to which he devoted his extraordinary mind. Until he was forty he was principally engaged in literary pursuits, and was the author of many literary works, most of which are lost. His commentaries on the Gallic and civil wars are the purest compositions in the Latin tongue. Beside his masterly "commentaries," the memoirs of his own life, he wrote on grammar and on rhetoric. He wrote tragedies, satires and lyrics, he reformed the calender, as well as the State, and is represented as the most perfect gentleman of his day. His moral sensibility was not equal to his intellectual acuteness, or his force of will, and the record of his life is stained by acts of profligacy, by cruelty, and a terrible and needless waste of human life. Niebuhr calls him a "demoniac man," driven restlessly onward, by the impulses of his genius and passions, vastly in advance of all his contemporaries. Most of the great generals of the world, have been distinguished at an early age. Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Frederick of Prussia, and Napoleon, gaired some of their most brilliant victories under thirty. Cæsar saw nothing of war until he was forty, when he appears all at once the greatest general the world ever saw. oratory he was inferior only to Cicero, and if he had de. voted as much time to that art as Cicero did, he would doubtless have surpassed him in that, as in every other art. His vivid imagination and extraordinary command of language would have made him shine with dazzling

In