did so that Caelius was tried for the
offence. There were no less than four accusers, or advocates, on her
behalf, of whom her brother was one. Caelius was defended by Crassus as
well as by Cicero, and was acquitted. All these cases combined
political views with criminal charges. Caelius was declared to have been
a Catilinian conspirator. He was also accused of being in debt, of
having quarrelled with his father, of having insulted women, of having
beaten a Senator, of having practised bribery, of having committed
various murders, and of having perpetrated all social and political
excesses to which his enemies could give a name. It was probable that
his life had been very irregular, but it was not probably true that he
had attempted to poison Clodia.

The speech is very well worth the trouble of reading. It is lively,
bright, picturesque, and argumentative; and it tells the reader very
much of the manners of Rome at the time. It has been condemned for a
passage which, to my taste, is the best in the whole piece. Cicero takes
upon himself to palliate the pleasures of youth, and we are told that a
man so grave, so pure, so excellent in his own life, should not have
condescended to utter sentiments so lax in defence of so immoral a young
friend. I will endeavor to translate a portion of the passage, and I
think that any ladies who may read these pages will agree with me in
liking Cicero the better for what he said upon the occasion. He has been
speaking of the changes which the manners of the world had undergone,
not only in Rome but in Greece, since pleasure had been acknowledged
even by philosophers to be necessary to life. "They who advocate one
constant course of continual labor as the road to fame are left alone in
their schools, deserted by their scholars. Nature herself has begotten
for us allurements, seduced by which Virtue herself will occasionally
become drowsy. Nature herself leads the young into slippery paths, in
which not to stumble now and again is hardly possible. Nature has
produced for us a variety of pleasures, to which not only youth, but
even middle-age, occasionally yields itself. If, therefore, you shall
find one who can avert his eyes from all that is beautiful--who is
charmed by no sweet smell, by no soft touch, by no rich flavor--who can
turn a deaf ear to coaxing words--I indeed, and perhaps a few others,
may think that the gods have been good to such a one; but I doubt
whether the world at lar