of familiar intercourse. The light words are taken to be grave because
they meet the modern critic's eye clothed in the majesty of a dead
language; and thus it comes to pass that their very meaning is
misunderstood.

My friend Mr. Collins speaks, in his charming little volume on Cicero,
of "quiet evasions" of the Cincian law,[7] and tells us that we are
taught by Cicero's letters not to trust Cicero's words when he was in
a boasting vein. What has the one thing to do with the other? He names
no quiet evasions. Mr. Collins makes a surmise, by which the character
of Cicero for honesty is impugned--without evidence. The anonymous
biographer altogether misinterprets Cicero. Mr. Froude charges Cicero
with anticipation of murder, grounding his charge on words which he
has not taken the trouble to understand. Cicero is accused on the
strength of his own private letters. It is because we have not the
private letters of other persons that they are not so accused.
The courtesies of the world exact, I will not say demand, certain
deviations from straightforward expression; and these are made most
often in private conversations and in private correspondence. Cicero
complies with the ways of the world; but his epistles are no longer
private, and he is therefore subjected to charges of falsehood. It is
because Cicero's letters, written altogether for privacy, have been
found worthy to be made public that such accusations have been made.
When the injustice of these critics strikes me, I almost wish that
Cicero's letters had not been preserved.

As I have referred to the evidence of those who have, in these latter
days, spoken against Cicero, I will endeavor to place before the
reader the testimony of his character which was given by writers,
chiefly of his own nation, who dealt with his name for the hundred and