t. No man worthy of the name of man would allow
himself to be pitiful. Wise men are beautiful, even though deformed;
rich though penniless; kings though they be slaves. We who are not wise
are mere exiles, runagates, enemies of our country, and madmen. Any
fault is an unpardonable crime. To kill an old cock, if you do not want
it, is as bad as to murder your father!"[160] And these doctrines, he
goes on to say, which are used by most of us merely as something to talk
about, this man Cato absolutely believes, and tries to live by them. I
shall have to refer back to this when I speak of Cicero's philosophy
more at length; but his common-sense crops up continually in the
expressions which he uses for defending the ordinary conditions of a
man's life, in opposition to that impossible superiority to mundane
things which the philosophers professed to teach their pupils. He turns
to Cato and asks him questions, which he answers himself with his own
philosophy: "Would you pardon nothing? Well, yes; but not all things.
Would you do nothing for friendship? Sometimes, unless duty should stand
in the way. Would you never be moved to pity? I would maintain my habit
of sincerity, but something must no doubt be allowed to humanity. It is
good to stick to your opinion, but only until some better opinion shall
have prevailed with you." In all this the humanity of our Cicero, as
opposed equally to the impossible virtue of a Cato or the abominable
vice of a Verres, is in advance of his age, and reminds us of what
Christ has taught us.

But the best morsel in the whole oration is that in which he snubs the
lawyers. It must be understood that Cicero did not pride himself on
being a lawyer. He was an advocate, and if he wanted law there were
those of an inferior grade to whom he could go to get it. In truth, he
did understand the law, being a man of deep research, who inquired into
everything. As legal points had been raised, he thus addresses
Sulpicius, who seems to have affected a knowledge of jurisprudence, who
had been a candidate for the Consulship, and who was his own intimate
friend: "I must put you out of your conceit," he says; "it was your
other gifts, not a knowledge of the laws--your moderation, your wisdom,
your justice--which, in my opinion, made you worthy of being loved. I
will not say you threw away your time in studying law, but it was not
thus you made yourself worthy of the Consulship.[161] That power of
eloquence, majest