e
books which he read, their unwieldy shapes, their unfitness for such
work as that of ours, there seems to have been a continuation of study
such as we cannot endure. Throughout his life his hours were early, but
they must also have been late. Of his letters we have not a half, of
his speeches not a half, of his treatises not more than a half. When he
was abroad during his exile, or in Cilicia during his government, he
could not have had his books with him. That Caesar should have been
Caesar, or Pompey Pompey, does not seem to me a matter so difficult as
that Cicero should have been Cicero. Then comes that letter of which I
spoke in my first chapter, in which he recapitulates the Getae, the
Armenians, and the men of Colchis. "Shall I, the savior of the city,
assist to bring down upon that city those hordes of foreign men? Shall I
deliver it up to famine and to destruction for the sake of one man who
is no more than mortal?"[127] It was Pompey as to whom he then asked the
question. For Pompey's sake am I to let in these crowds? We have been
told, indeed, by Mr. Froude that the man was Caesar, and that Cicero
wrote thus anxiously with the special object of arranging his death!

"Now, if ever, think what we shall do," he says. "A Roman army sits
round Pompey and makes him a prisoner within valley and rampart--and
shall we live? The city stands; the Praetors give the law, the AEdiles
keep up the games, good men look to their principal and their interest.
Shall I remain sitting here? Shall I rush hither and thither madly, and
implore the credit of the towns? Men of substance will not follow me.
The revolutionists will arrest me. Is there any end to this misery?
People will point at me and say, 'How wise he was not to go with him.' I
was not wise. Of his victory I never wished to be the comrade--yet now I
do of his sorrow."[128]

[Sidenote: B.C. 49, aetat. 58.]

Pompey had crossed the sea from Brundisium, and Caesar had retreated
across Italy to Capua. As he was journeying he saw Cicero, and asked him
to go to Rome. This Cicero refused, and Caesar passed on. "I must then
use other counsels," said Caesar, thus leaving him for the last time
before the coming battle. Cicero went on to Arpinum, and there heard the
nightingales. From that moment he resolved. He had not thought it
possible that when the moment came he should have been able to prevail
against Caesar's advice; but he had done so. He had feared that Caesar
would