thoughts, and that you can fupply the want of my company in this obliging manner. In return, I am employed in reading over and over your letters, which to me always appear new: but they ftill excite my impatience of feeing you; for, if your letters contain fo much fweetnefs, how much more charming muft your conversation prove? However, continue to write frequently; although what gives me pleasure, torments me at the fame time. Adieu. OBSERVATIONS. The lofs of CALPURNIA's letters, in anfwer to thofe, which the received from her husband, is much to be regretted. A lady of her delicacy and accomplishments must be happy in the ftile and manner of her writings, more efpecially, when they were dictated and infpired by love. Hiftory fcarce affords a brighter example of matrimonial friendship, than that which appears between PLINY and CALPURNIA. They seem to have been fuited to each other; and perfectly harmonious in difpofition, and inclinations: nor did the want of children hinder the cement from being as close, and as firm, as the moft numerous, or the moft hopeful offspring could have rendered it. PLINY indeed, in feveral epiftles, teftifies a great defire to be a father: But if he knew not the joy of a parent, neither did he know the forrow: he escaped numberlefs fears, and many hours of inexpreffible anxiety; hours, which the happieft parent muft undergo. You EPIST LE VIII. PLINY to PRISCUS. OU have long known, and you esteem ATTIenten LIUS CRESCENS, as every worthy man muft do, who is acquainted with him. My affection for him is not like that of many others, but is of the strongest nature. The cities, in which we were born, are at no greater distance, than one day's journey; and while we we were very young, our mutual friendship began, when affection is moft fervent. It has not been leffened, but encreased, by the judgement of our riper years. They, who are moft particularly acquainted with either of us, know this to be true. For he always fpeaks of my friendship in the warmest terms, and I am always declaring how much I have his reputation at heart, and interest myself in every thing, that may contribute to his ease, and his welfare. So that when he was apprehenfive of fome infolent treatment from a certain perfon, who was foon after to enter upon the Office of tribune of the people, upon his informing me of it, I answered, 1 While thefe my eyes behold the light, no hand Shall dare to wrong thee, on this crowded strand a. But, fay you, why do you tell me this? That you may know, no injury can be offered to ATTILIUS, without my feeling it. Again you'll fay, why do you tell me this? VALERIUS VARUS owed him a fum of money: Our friend MAXIMUS is heir to VARUS; I have a great affection for MAXIMUS; but you are more intimately acquainted with him. I conjure you therefore, and abfolutely infift, by the laws of friendship, that you take care, care, that my ATTILIUS fhall receive, not only the principal fum, but the intereft due upon it for many years. He is a man, who never borrows money from others, but is careful of his own. He has no means to fupport himfelf, no income, but what his frugality affords. For he pursues his ftudies, in which he greatly excels, only as they afford him honour and delight. The leaft lofs gives him much anxiety; because the reparation of it must be heavier upon him, than upon moft other men. Deliver him, deliver me from this uneasiness: Permit me to enjoy the sweetness of his * Vide Hoм. Il. a, . 88, 89. B 3 temper, temper, and the inoffenfive wit of his converfation. I cannot bear to fee a friend difpirited, whofe mirth hinders me from dejection. In fhort, you know the good humour of the man; which I beg you to preferve, fo that no injury may change it into rancour and bitterness. Depend upon it, his refentments are as ftrong, as his affections. A noble and an open heart, cannot bear a lofs attended with an affront. But, however he may bear it, I fhall look upon myfelf as injured, and ill used; and fhall refent it more upon his account, than upon my own. But, why do I fend you thefe injunctions, which indeed are almost threats? I had better proceed in the path, which I purfued at firft, by entreating and befeeching you to grant him your affiftance; that he may have no reafon to imagine himself neglected by me, which I much dread, nor I, to think myfelf difregarded by you. But you will grant him your affiftance, if my requests are as prevalent with you, as his are with me, Farewell. OBSERVATIONS. This letter, which is written upon a particular occafion, and to a particular friend, carries in it nothing more remarkable, than what we have already feen; the conftant and unwearied friendship of PLINY to thofe, for whom he profeffed an affection. We find in TULLY many epiftles of this kind; the thirteenth book ad familiares is almost filled with letters of recommendation. TULLY was the model, from whom our author planned his writings. He tells REGULUS, Eft mihi cum CICERONE æmulatio: nec fum contentus eloquentia feculi noftri a: "I would wish to emulate "CICERO, and my ideas of eloquence go beyond what "we meet with in the prefent times." And, when he writes to ARRIANUS, he fays, Te quidem (ut fcribis) ob hoc maxime delectat auguratus meus, quod MARCUS TULLIUS augur fuit. Lætaris enim, quod honoribus ejus infiftam, quem Lib. 1. ep. 5. @mulari mulari in ftudiis cupio: "The circumftance of my being "an augur pleafes you moft (as you exprefs in your letter) becaufe TULLY had been in that office before: for you 66 are glad, that I fhould follow him in my rife to honours, "whom I wish to emulate in literature." In a letter to ARISTO, his fears are expreffed very modeftly; Ego verear, ne me non fatis deceat, quod decuit MARCUM TULLIUM : "I fear, that dignity would fit ill upon me, which greatly "became TULLY." CICERO in profe, like HOMER in poetry, ftands alone, never to be equalled, always to be imitated. The perfection of the Roman language was eftablished in the days of TULLY; it was in the decline in the days of PLINY. But what abilities, what eloquence can make amends, for thofe inhumane expreffions, which we find in fome of TULLY's letters, when he fpeaks of the murder of JULIUS CASAR? Quam vellem, ad illas pulcherrimas epulas me idibus Martiis invitaffes! Reliquiarum nihil haberemus: "O that I had been invited > to that delightful banquet, on the ides of March! We "would have had no offals." And again, Veftri pulcherrimi facti ille furiofus (i. e. ANTONIUS) me principem dicit fuiffe; utinam quidem fuiffem: "That madman, MARK "ANTHONY, fays, that I was the inftrument and firft 66 promoter of that noble deed: I wish I had been." How different are fuch exclamations from that incense of flattery, which TULLY frequently offers to JULIUS CASAR, when living? Such infults upon the dead make TULLY appear mean spirited, and below himself; fo that in a comparifon between CICERO and PLINY, we may determine the firft to be the greater orator, but the laft the better man. a Lib. 4. ep. 8. EPISTLE b Lib. IX. PLINY to CORNELIUS TACITUS. You OU have fent me a recommendation of JULIUS NASO the candidate. Is it to me you recommend NASO? What if you had recommended me to myself? However I can eafily forgive you; for I B 4 fhould fhould have fent you a letter in his favour, if you had been at Rome and I in the country. But in truth our folicitude for our friends makes us imagine every application in their behalf indispensably neceffary. However don't neglect to folicit others. I fhall be a partaker of your good wishes, and fhall do what I can to forward and affift them. Adieu. OBSERVATIONS. The fixth epiftle of this book fhews us how warmly PLINY efpoufed the pretenfions of JULIUS NASO, who, we find by his applications to CORNELIUS TACITUS, had acted in the manner, which PLINY certifies to FUNDANUS in that epiftle: Quafi provideret hoc tempus, fedulò fecit: paravit amicos; quos paraverat coluit: "He acted carefully, as if he had forefeen the time: He had procured to himfelf friends, and thofe, whom he had gained, he pre"ferved." W EPISTLE X. PLINY to ALBINUS. HEN I came to the country house of my mother-in-law, in the Alfian territories, a houfe, which once belonged to RUFUS VERGINIUS, the place renewed in me, not without grief, the remembrance of that great and good man: For he ufed to live much in this retirement, and called it the little neft of his old age. Which way foever I turned, my heart and my eyes ftill wifhed, and fought for him. The fight of his monument gave me pleasure, but it was fucceeded by pain; for it is yet unfinished, nor is the difficulty of the work, which is moderate, or rather small, the real caufe; but the negligence of the person, to whom the care of it was committed. The confideration, that the afhes and unregarded remains of a man, the glory of whose memory is known |