d had probably
been murdered. Nothing increases so out of proportion to the occasion as
the granting of honors. Stars, when they fall in showers, pale their
brilliancy, and turn at last to no more than a cloud of dust. Honors are
soon robbed of all their honor when once the first step downward has
been taken. The decree was passed, and Cicero finished his last speech
on so poor an occasion. But though the thing itself then done be small
and trivial to us now, it was completed in magnificent language.[223]
The passage of which I give the first words below is very fine in the
original, though it does not well bear translation. Thus he ended his
fourteenth Philippic, and the silver tongue which had charmed Rome so
often was silent forever.

We at least have no record of any further speech; nor, as I think, did
he again take the labor of putting into words which should thrill
through all who heard them, not the thoughts but the passionate feelings
of the moment.

I will venture to quote from a contemporary his praise of the
Philippics. Mr. Forsyth says: "Nothing can exceed the beauty of the
language, the rhythmical flow of the periods, and the harmony of the
style. The structure of the Latin language, which enables the speaker or
writer to collocate his words, not, as in English, merely according to
the order of thought, but in the manner best calculated to produce
effect, too often baffles the powers of the translator who seeks to give
the force of the passage without altering the arrangement. Often again,
as is the case with all attempts to present the thoughts of the ancient
in a modern dress, a periphrasis must be used to explain the meaning of
an idea which was instantly caught by the Greek or Roman ear. Many
allusions which flashed like lightning upon the minds of the Senators
must be explained in a parenthesis, and many a home-thrust and caustic
sarcasm are now deprived of their sting, which pierced sharply at the
moment of their utterance some twenty centuries ago.

"But with all such disadvantages I hope that even the English reader
will be able to recognize in these speeches something of the grandeur of
the old Roman eloquence. The noble passages in which Cicero strove to
force his countrymen for very shame to emulate the heroic virtues of
their forefathers, and urged them to brave every danger and welcome
death rather than slavery in the last struggle for freedom, are radiant
with a glory which not even a tran