all good citizens, but that they may
expect hereafter immortal glory in new forms of being. To
illustrate this, he introduces the "Dream of Scipio," in
which he explains the resplendent doctrines of Plato
respecting the immortality of the soul with inimitable
dignity and elegance. This Somnium Scipionis, for which we
are indebted to the citation of Macrobius, is the most
beautiful thing of the kind ever written. It has been
intensely admired by all European scholars, and will be still
more so. There are two translations of it in our language;
one attached to Oliver's edition of Cicero's Thoughts, the
other by Mr. Danby, published in 1829. Of these we have
freely availed ourselves, and as freely we express our
acknowledgments.

BOOK VI.

SCIPIO'S DREAM.

I. Therefore you rely upon all the prudence of this rule,
which has derived its very name (_prudentia_) from foreseeing
(_a providendo_). Wherefore the citizen must so prepare
himself as to be always armed against those things which
trouble the constitution of a state. And that dissension of
the citizens, when one party separates from and attacks
another, is called sedition.

And in truth in civil dissensions, as the good are of more
importance than the many, I think that we should regard the
weight of the citizens, and not their number.

For the lusts, being severe mistresses of the thoughts,
command and compel many an unbridled action. And as they
cannot be satisfied or appeased by any means, they urge those
whom they have inflamed with their allurements to every kind
of atrocity.

II. Which indeed was so much the greater in him because
though the cause of the colleagues was identical, not only
was their unpopularity not equal, but the influence of
Gracchus was employed in mitigating the hatred borne to
Claudius.

Who encountered the number of the chiefs and nobles with
these words, and left behind him that mournful and dignified
expression of his gravity and influence.

That, as he writes, a thousand men might every day descend
into the forum with cloaks dyed in purple.

[_The next paragraph is unintelligible._]

For our ancestors wished marriages to be firmly established.

There is a speech extant of Laelius with which we are all