hand let it not be forgotten, that this very weakness does but the more
illustrate the unusual force of mind, and the heroic will, which
obstinately laid aside these concurring prefigurations of impending
destruction; concurring, we say, amongst themselves--and concurring also
with a prophecy of older date, which was totally independent of them all.

There is another and somewhat sublime story of the same class, which
belongs to the most interesting moment of Caesar's life; and those who are
disposed to explain all such tales upon physiological principles, will
find an easy solution of this, in particular, in the exhaustion of body,
and the intense anxiety which must have debilitated even Caesar under the
whole circumstances of the case. On the ever memorable night when he had
resolved to take the first step (and in such a case the first step, as
regarded the power of retreating, was also the final step) which placed
him in arms against the state, it happened that his headquarters were at
some distance from the little river Rubicon, which formed the boundary of
his province. With his usual caution, that no news of his motions might
run before himself, on this night Caesar gave an entertainment to his
friends, in the midst of which he slipped away unobserved, and with a
small retinue proceeded through the woods to the point of the river at
which he designed to cross. The night [Footnote: It is an interesting
circumstance in the habits of the ancient Romans, that their journeys were
pursued very much in the night-time, and by torchlight. Cicero, in one of
his letters, speaks of passing through the towns of Italy by night, as a
serviceable scheme for some political purpose, either of avoiding too much
to publish his motions, or of evading the necessity (else perhaps not
avoidable), of drawing out the party sentiments of the magistrates in the
circumstances of honor or neglect with which they might choose to receive
him. His words, however, imply that the practice was by no means an
uncommon one. And, indeed, from some passages in writers of the Augustan