or Caesar was ready to spare him, as he
was always ready to spare enemies who could not harm him), there was yet
good for him to do; in his hasty impatience of what he disapproved, he
preferred to deprive his country of its most honest citizen.

We must not omit a picture so characteristic of Roman life as the story
of his last hours. The last army of the republic had been destroyed at
Thapsus, and Caesar was undisputed master of the world. Cato vainly
endeavored to stir up the people of Utica, a town near Carthage, in
which he had taken up his quarters; when they refused, he resolved to
put an end to his life. A kinsman of Caesar, who was preparing to
intercede with the conqueror for the lives of the vanquished leaders,
begged Cato's help in revising his speech. "For you," he said, "I should
think it no shame to clasp his hands and fall at his knees." "Were I
willing to take my life at his hands," replied Cato, "I should go alone
to ask it. But I refuse to live by the favor of a tyrant. Still, as
there are three hundred others for whom you are to intercede, let us see
what can be done with the speech." This business finished, he took an
affectionate leave of his friend, commending to his good offices his son
and his friends. On his son he laid a strict injunction not to meddle
with public life. Such a part as was worthy of the name of Cato no man
could take again; to take any other would be shameful. Then followed the
bath, and after the bath, dinner, to which he had invited a number of
friends, magistrates of the town. He sat at the meal, instead of
reclining. This had been his custom ever since the fated day of
Pharsalia. After dinner, over the wine, there was much learned talk,
and this not other than cheerful in tone. But when the conversation
happened to turn on one of the favorite maxims of the Stoics, "Only the
good man is free; the bad are slaves," Cato expressed himself with an
energy and even a fierceness that made the company suspect some terrible
resolve. The melancholy silence that ensued warned the speaker that he
had betrayed himself, and he hastened to remove the suspicion by talking
on other topics. After dinner he took his customary walk, gave the
necessary orders to the officers on guard, and then sought his chamber.
Here he took up the Phaedo, the famous dialogue in which Socrates, on
the day when he is to drink the poison, discusses the immortality of the
soul. He had almost finished the book, when,