m of
dirty water over him that one would think that a river had entered his
house. For this beast has a wonderfully long memory, both of injury and
of kindness. Its eyes are small but move solemnly, so that there is a
sort of royal majesty in its appearance: and it despises scurrile jests,
while it always looks with pleasure on that which is honourable".

It must be admitted that if the official communications of modern
statesmen thus anxiously combined amusement with instruction, the dull
routine of "I have the honour to inform" and "I beg to remain your
obedient humble servant", would acquire a charm of which it is now
destitute.

I have translated two letters which show the ludicrous side of the
literary character of Cassiodorus. In justice to this honest, if
somewhat pedantic, servant of Theodoric, I will close this sketch of his
character with a state-paper of a better type, and one which
incidentally throws some light on the social condition of Italy under
the Goths.

"THEODORIC to the Illustrious Neudes. (Var., v., 29.)

"We were moved to sympathy by the long petition of Ocer but yet more by
beholding the old hero, bereft of the blessing of sight, inasmuch as the
calamities which we witness make more impression upon us than those of
which we only hear. He, poor man, living on in perpetual darkness, had
to borrow the sight of another to hasten to our presence in order that
he might feel the sweetness of our clemency, though he could not gaze
upon our countenance.

"He complains that Gudila and Oppas (probably two Gothic nobles or a
Gothic chief and his wife) have reduced him to a state of slavery, a
condition unknown to him or his fathers, since he once served in our
army as a free man. We marvel that such a man should be dragged into
bondage who (on account of his infirmity) ought to have been liberated
by a lawful owner. It is a new kind of ostentation to claim the services
of such an one, the sight of whom shocks you, and to call that man a
slave, to whom you ought rather to minister with divine compassion.

"He adds also that all claims of this nature have been already judged
invalid after careful examination by Count Pythias, a man celebrated for
the correctness of his judgments. But now overwhelmed by the weight of
his calamity, he cannot assert his freedom by his own right hand, which
in the strong man is the most effectual advocate of his claims. We,
however, whose peculiar property it is to adminis