r. He read Cicero, Plutarch, Suetonius,
Caesar himself, and produced early in 1879 a volume which was always
a particular favourite of his own. "I believe," he said to Skelton,
"it is the best book I have ever written." The public did not
altogether agree with him, and it never became so popular as Short
Studies.

Yet it is undoubtedly a brilliant performance, with just the
qualities which might have been expected to make it popular, and a
second edition was soon required. It is interesting from the first
page to the last, and its whole object is to show that the Roman
world in the last days of the Republic was very like the English
world under Queen Victoria. In Rome itself it has a steady sale. The
general reader, however, was not wrong in thinking that these
eloquent pages are below the level of Froude at his best. There is a
hard metallic glitter in the style, and a forced comparison of
ancient with modern things not really parallel, which make the whole
narrative artificial and unreal. Lord Dufferin said, with his
natural acuteness, "It is interesting, and forcibly written, but one
feels he is not a safe guide. As they say of the mansions of
Ireland, 'they are always within a hundred yards of the best
situation,' so one feels that Froude is never quite in the bull's-
eye in the view he gives."*

--
* Lyall's Life of Dufferin, vol. ii. p. 244.
--

Those who criticised the book as if it were a formal and historical
narrative showed a lack of humour, which is a sense of proportion.
Macaulay might almost as well be judged by his Fragment of a Roman
Tale. Froude himself calls his Caesar a sketch, and it is scarcely
more authoritative than the pamphlet of Louis Napoleon on the same
subject. On the other hand, it is quite untrue that Froude had not
read Cicero's letters. He had read those which bore upon his
subject, and he quotes them freely enough. The fault of his Caesar
is that he makes a wrong start. Points of resemblance between the
first century before the Christian era and the nineteenth century
after it may of course be found. But the differences are essential
and fundamental. A society which rests upon servitude cannot be like
a society which rests upon freedom. Christianity has modified the
whole lives of those who do not profess it, and has created a
totally new atmosphere, even if it be not in all respects a better
one. Representative government, whether it be a good thing or a bad
thing, is at least a