Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/310

 MARCUS BRUTUS. Marcus Brutus was descended from thatJunius Brutus to whom the ancient Romans erected a statue of brass in the capitol among the images of their kings with a drawn sword in his hand, in remembrance of his courage and resolution in expelling the Tarquins and destroying the monarchy. But that ancient Brutus was of a severe and inflexible nature, like steel of too hard a temper, and having never had his character softened by study and thought, he let himself be so far transported with his rage and hatred against tyrants, that, for conspiring with them, he proceeded to the execution even of his own sons. But this Brutus, whose life we now write, having to the goodness of his disijosition added the im- provements of learning and the study of philosophy, and having stirred up his natural parts, of themselves grave and gentle, by applying himself to business and public affairs, seems to have been of a temper exactly framed for virtue ; insomuch that they who were most his enemies upon account of his conspiracy against Caesar, if in that whole afiair there was any honorable or generous part, referred it whoily to Brutus, and laid whatever was barbarous and cruel to the charge of Cassius, Brutus's con- nection and familiar friend, but not his equal in honesty and pureness of purpose. His mother, Servilia, was of the (802)