and inconsistent images of terror--nothing more than the natural and
proper effects, on the one hand, of the insatiable ambition of man, and,
on the other, of the conjugal affection and solicitude of woman. The
ancient sculptors carved out images of men, by the forms and lineaments
of which we see that the physical characteristics of humanity have not
changed. History seems to do the same with the affections and passions
of the soul. The dreams of Caesar and his wife on the night before the
Ides of March, as thus recorded, form a sort of spiritual statue, which
remains from generation to generation, to show us how precisely all the
inward workings of human nature are from age to age the same.

[Sidenote: Caesar hesitates.]

When the morning came Caesar and Calpurnia arose, both restless and ill
at ease. Caesar ordered the auspices to be consulted with reference to
the intended proceedings of the day. The soothsayers came in in due
time, and reported that the result was unfavorable. Calpurnia, too,
earnestly entreated her husband not to go to the senate-house that day.
She had a very strong presentiment that, if he did go, some great
calamity would ensue. Caesar himself hesitated. He was half inclined to
yield, and postpone his coronation to another occasion.

[Sidenote: Decimus Brutus.]

In the course of the day, while Caesar was in this state of doubt and
uncertainty, one of the conspirators, named Decimus Brutus, came in.
This Brutus was not a man of any extraordinary courage or energy, but he
had been invited by the other conspirators to join them, on account of
his having under his charge a large number of gladiators, who, being
desperate and reckless men, would constitute a very suitable armed force