Green throughout a thousand years,

To the outmost flank of time.
Sleep, impassive silence reign!
No assassin can invade

Where thy precious dust is laid,
Evermore.

Bloom, oh prairie, verdure sweet!
All your rare redundance spread,
Sprinkling perfume o'er his head,
Evermore.

Troy Daily Whig, May 2d.

LINCOLN AND CICERO.

BY B. H. HALL.

The juxtaposition of these two names may excite a smile in those who do not at the first thought perceive anything in common in the life or character of the Roman orator and the American ruler. In fact one would be apt to think that their names could only be brought together save for the sake of contrast. It is true, doubtless, that the differences between them are more marked than the similarities, still there are points of resemblance, and to these we desire to call attention. Cicero died by violence, so did Lincoln. Cicero was slain by the hands of traitors. Lincoln was the victim of treason. The manner of their death was different but equally affecting. On hearing that he had been proscribed, Cicero sought safety in flight. As his servants were carrying him in his litter or port

able chair, the soldiers appeared. His servants prepared to fight, but Cicero commanded them to set him down and to make no resistance. "Then looking upon his executioners," as says Middleton in his Life of Cicero, "with a presence and firmness, which almost daunted them, and thrusting his neck, as forwardly as he could, out of the litter, he bade them do their work and take what they wantdd, upon which they presently cut off his head and both his hands." The sad story of Mr. Lincoln's assassination is too fresh in our minds to require a repetition.

The world has been moved as never before, whereever a spark of civilization glows, with sympathy at the loss we have sustained. Governments of all kinds, whether republican or monarchical, limited as to the power of the ruler or autocratical, Protestant or Roman Catholic, obeying the laws of Mahomet or based on Indian superstitions - all have evinced their horror at and declared their detestation of the fearful crime. Time will not weaken the impression. As the full antecedent history of the foul transaction becomes known, the terrible meaning of the act of assassination will appear, and after ages will recognize the fact as proved beyond cavil, that the blow which struck down their leader was intended for the heart of a free people. Already has the place where the deed was done become marked with an interest heretofore unimagined of any locality in our land. Already has the city named from the Father of his country

become sacred as the place where fell time's noblest and latest martyr for Liberty and Truth. And so was it measurably with Cicero. The story of his death continued fresh in the minds of the Romans for many ages after the event and was delivered down to posterity with all its circumstances, as one of the most affecting and memorable of their history. The spot on which he was slain became famous, and was visited by travelers with a kind of religious reverence and awe. But it is to the similarity between these two illustrious men, in certain traits of character, we desire to call particular attention. The language of the historian already alluded to, concerning Cicero's ideas of friendship,applies with equal force to Lincoln: "He entertained very high notions of friendship, and of its excellent use and benefit to human life. In all the variety of friendships in which his eminent rank engaged him, he was never charged with deceiving, deserting, or even slighting any one, whom he had once called his friend, or esteemed an honest man." So too did Lincoln resemble Cicero in his kindness to his enemies. The record which is left of the latter, on this point, is equally true of the former: "He was not more generous to his friends, than placable to his enemies, readily pardoning the greatest injuries, upon the slightest submission; and though no man ever had greater abilities or opportunities of revenging himself, yet when it was in his power to hurt, he sought out reasons to forgive, and whenever he was invited to it,

never declined a reconciliation with his most inveterate enemies, of which there are numerous instances in his history. He declared nothing to be more laudable and worthy of a great man, than placability, and laid it down for a natural duty, to moderate our revenge, and observe a temper in punishing; and held repentance to be a sufficient ground for remitting it." As Cicero once said of himself so may it with equal truth be said of Lincoln, that his enmities were mortal, his friendships immortal.

In one other trait of character a trait the possession and manifestation of which has brought upon Lincoln the slander of being a ribald jester-namely, that of pleasantry in conversation; in this characteristic did Lincoln especially resemble the great Roman. In the quaint language of Middleton, from whom citations have already been made, we give the picture of the humorous side of Cicero's life, and find in it much to remind us of him whose "little story" has grown a proverb. He was "of a nature remarkably facetious, and singularly turned to raillery, a talent, which was of great service to him at the bar, to correct the petulance of an adversary, relieve the satiety of a tedious cause, divert the minds of the judges, and mitigate the rigor of a sentence, by making both the bench and audience merry at the expense of the

accuser.

"This use of it was always thought fair, and greatly applauded in public trials, but in private conversa

tions, he was charged sometimes with pushing his raillery too far, and, through a consciousness of his superior wit, exerting it often intemperately, without reflecting what cruel wounds his lashes inflicted. Yet of all his sarcastical jokes, which are transmitted to us by antiquity, we shall not observe any, but what were pointed against characters, either ridiculous or profligate, such as he despised for their follies, or hated for their vices; and though he might provoke the spleen, and quicken the malice of enemies, more than was consistent with a regard to his own ease, yet he never appears to have hurt or lost a friend, or any one whom he valued, by the levity of jesting.

"It is certain that the fame of his wit was as celebrated as that of his eloquence; and that several spurious collections of his sayings were handed about in Rome in his life time; till his friend Trebonius, after he had been consul, thought it worth while to publish an authentic edition of them, in a volume which he addressed to Cicero himself. Cæsar likewise, in the height of his power, having taken a fancy to collect the apophthegms or memorable sayings of eminent men, gave strict orders to all his friends who used to frequent Cicero, to bring him everything of that sort, which happened to drop from him in their company. But Tiro, Cicero's freedman, who served him chiefly in his studies and literary affairs, published after his death, the most perfect collections of his sayings in three books."