Page:An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals - Hume (1751).djvu/245

 of their fatal Purpose, they all swore Fealty to Cæsar; and protesting to hold his Person ever sacred, they touch'd the Altar with those Hands, which they had already arm'd for his Destruction.

not put you in mind of the famous and applauded Story of Themistocles, and of his Patience towards Eurybiades, the Spartan, his commanding Officer, who, heated by a Debate, lifted his Cane to him in a Council of War (the same Thing as if he had cudgel'd him) Strike! cries the ''Athenian, Strike! but hear me''.

are too good a Scholar not to discover Socrates and his Athenian Club in my last Story; and you would certainly observe, that it is exactly copy'd from Xenophon, with a Variation only of the Names. And I think I have fairly made appear, that an Athenian Man of Merit might be such a one as with us would pass for Incestuous, a Parricide, an Assassin, an ungrateful, perjur'd Traitor, and something else too abominable to be nam'd; not to mention his Rusticity and Ill-manners. And having liv'd in this Manner, his Death may be entirely suitable: He