ar and critic,
who has named the Marcellus as a thing of excellence, comparing it with
the eulogistic speeches of Isocrates. The praise of La Harpe was
previous to the condemnation of Wolf, and we might have been willing to
accede to the German as being the later and probably the more accurate.
Mr. Long, the British editor of the Orations--Mr. Long, who has so
loudly condemned the four speeches supposed to have been made after
Cicero's return from exile--gives us no certain guidance. Mr. Long, at
any rate, has not been so disgusted by the Tiberian Latin as to feel
himself bound to repudiate it. If he can read the Pro Marcello, so can
I, and so, my reader, might you do probably without detriment. But these
differences among the great philologic critics tend to make us, who are
so infinitely less learned, better contented with our own lot. I, who
had read the Pro Marcello without stumbling over its halting Latinity,
should have felt myself crushed when I afterward came across Wolf's
denunciations, had I not been somewhat comforted by La Harpe. But when I
found that Mr. Long, in his introduction to the piece, though he
discusses Wolf's doctrine, still gives to the orator the advantage, as
it may be, of his "imprimatur," I felt that I might go on, and not be
ashamed of myself.[142]

This is the story that has now to be told of the speech Pro Marcello. At
the time the matter ended very tragically. As soon as Caesar had yielded,
Cicero wrote to Marcellus giving him strong reasons for coming home.
Marcellus answered him, saying that it was impossible. He thanks Cicero
shortly; but, with kindly dignity, he declines. "With the comforts of
the city I can well dispense," he says.[143] Then Cicero urges him again
and again, using excellent arguments for his return--which at length
prevail. In the spring of the next year Marcellus, on his way back to
Rome, is at Athens. There Servius Sulpicius spends a day with him; but,
just as Sulpicius is about to pass on, there comes a slave to him who
tells him that Marcellus has been murdered. His friend Magius Chilo had
stabbed him overnight, and had then destroyed himself. It was said that
Chilo had asked Marcellus to pay his debts for him, and that Marcellus
had refused. It seems to be more probable that Chilo had his own
reasons for not choosing that his friend should return to Rome.

Looking back at my own notes on the speech--it would make with us but a
ten minutes' after-dinner speech-