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174 amid the vast population of Rome—where the one probably rented a fifth-story chamber, and the other a well-appointed house—yet that their views of the general corruption of literature, as well as of morals, coincided as closely as if they had sat at the same table, or exchanged opinions in a library or a lecture-room.

Messala takes the side of the older orators against Aper, the advocate of the new eloquence. He says: "Before entering on the subject of the decay of eloquence, it will not be useless to look back to the system of education that prevailed in former times, and to the strict discipline of our ancestors, in a point of so much moment as the formation of youth. In the times to which I now refer, the son of every family was the legitimate offspring of a virtuous mother." This not very charitable, yet perhaps not untrue, statement, is in the very spirit of Juvenal and Martial, who "knew the town" as well as the Higgins of Pope did. "The infant, as soon as born, was not consigned to the mean dwelling of a hireling nurse, but was reared and cherished in the bosom of a tender parent. To regulate all household affairs and attend to her children was, at that time, the highest commendation of women. Some kinswoman of mature years, and distinguished by the parity of her life, was chosen for the guardian of the child. In her presence no indecent word or act was permitted. To her was intrusted the direction of the studies of her charge; nay more, his sports and recreations also, so that all might be conducted with modesty and respect for virtue. The tendency of this strict discipline was, that the nature of the young being trained up in purity and honesty, and not being