this than is given to men to achieve by such means. No doubt there was
conceit in this--conceit and perhaps, vanity. It has to be admitted
that Cicero always exaggerated his own powers. But the ambition was
great, the purpose noble, and the course of his whole life was such as
to bring no disgrace on his aspirations. He did not thunder against
the judges for taking bribes, and then plunder a province himself. He
did not speak grandly of the duty of a patron to his clients, and then
open his hands to illicit payments. He did not call upon the Senate
for high duty, and then devote himself to luxury and pleasure. He had
a _beau ideal_ of the manner in which a Roman Senator should live and
work, and he endeavored to work and live up to that ideal. There was
no period after his Consulship in which he was not aware of his own
failure. Nevertheless, with constant labor, but with intermittent
struggles, he went on, till, at the end, in the last fiery year of his
existence, he taught himself again to think that even yet there was
a chance. How he struggled, and in struggling perished, we shall see
by-and-by.

What Cicero did as Quaestor in Sicily we have no means of knowing. His
correspondence does not go back so far. That he was very active, and
active for good, we have two testimonies, one of which is serious,
convincing, and most important as an episode in his life. The other
consists simply of a good story, told by himself of himself; not
intended at all for his own glorification, but still carrying with it
a certain weight. As to the first: Cicero was Quaestor in Lilybaeum in
the thirty-second year of his life. In the thirty-seventh year he was
elected Aedile, and was then called upon by the Sicilians to attack
Verres on their behalf. Verres was said to have carried off from
Sicily plunder to the amount of nearly L400,000,[94] after a misrule
of three years' duration. All Sicily was ruined. Beyond its pecuniary