given as to the affairs of his own consular year. The story is not a
happy one, but the lines are harmonious. It is often worth our while
to inquire how poetry has become such as it is, and how the altered
and improved phases of versification have arisen. To trace our melody
from Chaucer to Tennyson is matter of interest to us all. Of Cicero as
a poet we may say that he found Latin versification rough, and left it
smooth and musical. Now, as we go on with the orator's life and prose
works, we need not return to his poetry.

The names of many masters have been given to us as those under whom
Cicero's education was carried on. Among others he is supposed, at a
very early age, to have been confided to Archias. Archias was a Greek,
born at Antioch, who devoted himself to letters, and, if we are to
believe what Cicero says, when speaking as an advocate, excelled all
his rivals of the day. Like many other educated Greeks, he made his
way to Rome, and was received as one of the household of Lucullus,
with whom he travelled, accompanying him even to the wars. He became a
citizen of Rome--so Cicero assures us--and Cicero's tutor. What Cicero
owed to him we do not know, but to Cicero Archias owed immortality.
His claim to citizenship was disputed; and Cicero, pleading on his
behalf, made one of those shorter speeches which are perfect in
melody, in taste, and in language. There is a passage in which
speaking on behalf of so excellent a professor in the art, he sings
the praises of literature generally. I know no words written in praise
of books more persuasive or more valuable. "Other recreations," he
says, "do not belong to all seasons nor to all ages, nor to all
places. These pursuits nourish our youth and delight our old age. They
adorn our prosperity and give a refuge and a solace to our troubles.
They charm us at home, and they are not in our way when we are abroad.
They go to bed with us. They travel about with us. They accompany us