Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/588

 576 CICEEO who cultivated it only as tending to strengthen the mental powers ; it became a written elo- quence, composed in the schools ; but this kept up the interest in it for a short time only. Cicero has had hosts of commentators, the old- est and best of whom is Q. Asconius Pedianus, a native of Padua ; he wrote commentaries on these orations, A. D. 41, for the use of his sons ; the fragments preserved show the great value of this work ; they relate to nine orations, and were discovered by Poggio in St. Gall ; some others were found in the Ambrosian library at Milan. Cicero was also chief among the Ro- man philosophers. He was first an Epicurean, and the disciple of Phaedrus ; he afterward paid great attention to the Academic philosophy, on account of its excellent system of philosophical and rhetorical education ; finally he devoted himself to the Stoic school, yet even this, like the rest of his countrymen, he regarded only as a means of education, and not as a rule of life. He discontinued his philosophical pursuits when he entered upon public duties ; but after the downfall of the republic he again devoted him- self to these studies, and wrote in rapid succes- sion his works on philosophic subjects. His object was to make his countrymen familiar with the philosophy of Greece ; the reader must not, therefore, expect to find in his works anything new. Cicero was for a long time con- sidered authority on matters of philosophy, in- stead of the Greek originals; but after the re- vival of learning in the middle ages, more at- tention was directed to the latter. On abstruse subjects, such as God, the soul, &c., he never expresses himself with certainty, but always speaks in the most guarded manner ; he has, therefore, often been censured for opinions that he probably never entertained, as, for instance, atheism. He seems to have written on the Academic principle, " that there is no certain knowledge." In his manner of treating his subjects he follows Plato, but in his morals he is decidedly a disciple of Zeno the Stoic. His philosophical works, in the order in which they were written, are the following : De Republica libri sex ad Atticum, composed at his villa near Cumre, 54 B. C. ; this is a dialogue between Scipio, Lrolius, and others, on " What is the best form of a state? " The scene is laid about 129 B. C. ; a very interesting time, when the coun- try was convulsed by the disturbances of the Gracchi, whose movements furnish many illus- trations in the course of the work ; the book closes with the Somnium Scipionis. It was lost for several centuries, with the exception of the " Dream of Scipio," which was saved by means of a commentary upon it by Macrobius ; there were a few fragments, too, found in the Christian fath ers. M ai discovered a pal impsest, the upper writing of which was a book of the Psalms, and the lower the De Republica ; sim- ilar strange fellowships are not uncommon in the palimpsests; by this most of the first and second books have been recovered. The next work is De Legibus libri tres; the genuineness of this has been questioned from the fact that in another book, De Divinatione, Cicero enu- merates all his works, and that this is not among them ; but this reason is insufficient, as the present book is unfinished, and of course would not have been included in a list of his writings; the second and third books were probably never revised; it was written soon after the death of Clodius, when Cicero was chosen into the college of augurs, in 53 ; it was not published until after his death; in this work Cicero shows that there is in man a natural principle to make and respect laws ; Macrobius quotes a fifth book. The next is Academica, a curiosity on account of the changes it has undergone; it was originally written in two books; he afterward rewrote it. It treats of the old academy of Socrates and the new of Carneades and Philo; it also contains a sketch of the system of Arcesilaus, or the middle academy. We have much of the first book of the second edition. It was writ- ten in 45, and is perhaps as good a book as any by which to ascertain Cicero's real opinions, always a difficult task. De Finibus Bonorum et Maloritm libri quinque, addressed to Brutus, was written also in 45 ; it consists of dialogues containing the views of the most celebrated Greeks on this subject; in the first book Tor- quatns gives the view of Epicurus, and in the second Cicero refutes it ; in the third and fourth Cato and himself state the opinions of the Stoics; and in the fifth Piso gives the views of the old academy. It is very impor- tant in literary history. Tvscvlanarvm Dis- putationum libri quinque ad Brutvm appeared in 44; it was written with great rapidity, and bears marks of carelessness purposely intro- duced to give it an air of ease; it consists of dialogues in his own villa upon various practi- cal subjects; the first book is on the contempt of death ; the second on firmness and constancy in suffering; the third on the means of allevi- ating suffering; the fourth on the passions; the fifth on virtue as the means of happiness ; the last is by far the best ; a good edition is the old English one by Davis. De Natura Deorum libri tres ad Brutum was written in April, 44; in this dialogue are expressed the opinions of the Epicureans, Stoics, and Aca- demics on this subject, but as usual it is diffi- cult to get at his own opinions ; he seems to agree with Plato and the Academics ; his ob- ject was to introduce better views on this im- portant subject. De Divinatione libri dito was written immediately after the last, and is con- nected with it; in the first book his brother Quintus states the opinions of the Stoics in favor of divination, and in the second Cicero refutes them. De Fato is intimately connected with the preceding two ; its intention is to overthrow the Stoic doctrine of fate, and to establish that of free will ; it is very imperfect, the first and last portions being lost, and the text of the rest quite unsettled. De Senectute, addressed to Atticus, was written in the country ; it do-