myself."[122] Mr. Pecksniff spoke of himself in the same way, but no
one, I think, believed him. Cicero probably was believed. But the most
wonderful thing is, that his manner of life justified what he said
of himself. When others of his own order were abandoned to lust,
iniquity, and shamelessness, he lived in purity, with clean hands,
doing good as far as was in his power to those around him. A laugh
will be raised at his expense in regard to that assertion of his that,
even in the matter of arrogance, his conduct should be the opposite of
that of Verres. But this will come because I have failed to interpret
accurately the meaning of those words, "oris oculorumque illa
contumacia ac superbia quam videtis." Verres, as we can understand,
had carried himself during the trial with a bragging, brazen, bold
face, determined to show no shame as to his own doings. It is in this,
which was a matter of manner and taste, that Cicero declares that he
will be the man's opposite as well as in conduct. As to the ordinary
boastings, by which it has to be acknowledged that Cicero sometimes
disgusts his readers, it will be impossible for us to receive a just
idea of his character without remembering that it was the custom of
a Roman to boast. We wait to have good things said of us, or are
supposed to wait. The Roman said them of himself. The "veni, vidi,
vici" was the ordinary mode of expression in those times, and in
earlier times among the Greeks.[123] This is distasteful to us; and it
will probably be distasteful to those who come after us, two or three
hundred years hence, that this or that British statesman should have
made himself an Earl or a Knight of the Garter. Now it is thought by
many to be proper enough. It will shock men in future days that
great peers or rich commoners should have bargained for ribbons and
lieutenancies and titles. Now it is the way of the time. Though virtue
and vice may be said to remain the same from all time to all time, the
latitudes allowed and the deviations encouraged in this or the