his devotion to literature, was at the same time agitated
by another kind of glory, and the most perfect author in Rome imagined
that he was enlarging his honours by the intrigues of the consulship. He
has distinctly marked the character of the man of letters in the person of
his friend ATTICUS, for which he has expressed his respect, although he
could not content himself with its imitation. "I know," says this man of
genius and ambition, "I know the greatness and ingenuousness of your soul,
nor have I found any difference between us, but in a different choice of
life; a certain sort of ambition has led me earnestly to seek after
honours, while other motives, by no means blameable, induced you to adopt
an honourable leisure; _honestum otium_."[A] These motives appear in the
interesting memoirs of this man of letters; a contempt of political
intrigues combined with a desire to escape from the splendid bustle of
Rome to the learned leisure of Athens. He wished to dismiss a pompous
train of slaves for the delight of assembling under his roof a literary
society of readers and transcribers. And having collected under that roof
the portraits or busts of the illustrious men of his country, inspired by
their spirit and influenced by their virtues or their genius, he inscribed
under them, in concise verses, the characters of their mind. Valuing
wealth only for its use, a dignified economy enabled him to be profuse,
and a moderate expenditure allowed him to be generous.

[Footnote A: "Ad Atticum," Lib. i. Ep. 17.]

The result of this literary life was the strong affections of the
Athenians. At the first opportunity the absence of the man of letters
offered, they raised a statue to him, conferring on our POMPONIUS the fond
surname of ATTICUS. To have received a name from the voice of the city
they inhabited has happened to more than one man of letters. PINELLI, born
a Neapolitan, but residing at Venice, among other peculiar honours
received from the senate, was there distinguished by the affectionate
title of "the Venetian."

Yet such a character as ATTICUS could not escape censure from "men of the
world." They want the heart and the imagination to conceive something
better than themselves. The happy indifference, perhaps the contempt
of our ATTICUS for rival factions, they have stigmatised as a cold
neutrality, a timid pusillanimous hypocrisy. Yet ATTICUS could not have
been a mutual friend, had not both parties alike held the m