2d Cit. Peace! silence! Brutus speaks. 1st Cit.

Peace, ho!

Bru. Good countrymen, let me depart alone,
And, for my sake, stay here with Antony:
Do grace to Cæsar's corpse, and grace his speech
Tending to Cæsar's glories, which Mark Antony,
By our permission, is allowed to make.
I do entreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.

1st Cit. Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark Antony. 3d Cit. Let him go up into the public chair; We'll hear him. Noble Antony, go up.

Ant. For Brutus' sake, I am beholden to you.
4th Cit. What does he say of Brutus?
3d Cit.

He finds himself beholden to us all.

He says, for Brutus' sake,

4th Cit. "Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here. 1st Cit. This Cæsar was a tyrant.

3d Cit.

Nay, that's certain:

We are blessed that Rome is rid of him.

2d Cit. Peace; let us hear what Antony can say.
Ant. You gentle Romans-
Cit..

Peace, ho! let us hear him.

Ant. Friends', Romans', countrymen', lend me your ears;
I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him'.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones:
So let it be with Cæsar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Cæsar was ambitious:
If it were so, it were a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Cæsar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus, and the rest
(For Brutus is an honorable man';*
So are they all', all honorable men'),
Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral.
He was my friend', faithful and just' to me;
But Brutus' says' he was ambitious';

And Brutus is an honorable man'.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious'?

When that the poor have cried', Cæsar hath wept':
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff;

Yet Brutus says' he was ambitious';

And Brutus is an honorable man'.

You did all see that on the Lupercal

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says' he was ambitious';

And sure he is an honorable man'.

[Exit.

* The falling inflection is frequently given to "honorable," and the rising to "man;" but Antony would hardly have ventured upon irony so open, while his auditors were so little prepared for it. The rising circumflex should be distinctly given to the word “hon

orable."

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once; not without cause;
What cause withholds you, then, to mourn' for him?
Oh judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,

And men have lost their reason! Bear with me;

My heart is in the coffin there with Cæsar,

And I must pause till it come back to me.

1st Cit. Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.

2d Cit. If thou consider rightly of the matter,

Cæsar has had great wrong.

3d Cit.

Has he, masters?

I fear there will a worse come in his place.

4th Cit. Marked ye his words? He would not take the crown; therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.

1st Cit. If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

2d Cit. Poor soul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping.

3d Cit. There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony. 4th Cit. Now mark him; he begins again to speak.

Ant. But yesterday, the word of Cæsar might

Have stood against the world': now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence.

Oh masters'! if I were disposed to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,

I should do Brutus' wrong, and Cassius' wrong,
Who, you all know, are honorable men'.

I will not do them wrong; I rather choose
To wrong the dead', to wrong myself, and you,
Than I will wrong such honorable men'.

But here's a parchment with the seal of Cæsar;
I found it in his closet; 'tis his will:

Let but the commons hear this testament
(Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read),

And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's wounds,
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood;
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,

And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy

Unto their issue.

4th Cit.

We'll hear the will. Read it, Mark Antony.

Cit. The will, the will; we will hear Cæsar's will.

Ant. Have patience, gentle friends; I must not read it;

It is not meet you know how Cæsar loved you.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men ;
And, being men, hearing the will of Cæsar,
It will inflame you, it will make you mad:
"Tis good you know not that you are his heirs ;
For, if you should, oh, what would come of it!

4th Cit. Read the will; we will hear it, Antony; You shall read us the will-Cæsar's will.

Ant. Will you be patient? Will you stay a while? I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it.

I fear I wrong the honorable men

Whose daggers have stabbed Cæsar: I do fear it.

4th Cit. They were traitors'. Honorable men'!

Cit. The will! the testament!

2d Cit. They were villains, murderers. The will-read the will!
Ant. You will compel me, then, to read the will?
Then make a ring about the corpse of Cæsar,
And let me show you him that made the will.
Shall I descend? And will you give me leave?
Cit. Come down.

1st Cit. Stand from the hearse, stand from the body.
2d Cit. Room for Antony-most noble Antony.
Ant. Nay, press not so upon me; stand far off.
Cit. Stand back! room! bear back!

Ant. If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle: I remember

The first time ever Cæsar put it on;

"Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent-
That day he overcame the Nervii.

Look! in this place ran Cassius' dagger through;
See what a rent the envious Casca made;

Through this, the well-beloved Brutus stabbed;
And, as he plucked his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Cæsar followed it,
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved

If Brutus so unkindly knocked or no;

For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel:

Judge, oh you gods, how dearly Cæsar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all;

For, when the noble Cæsar saw him stab,

Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,

Quite vanquished him. Then burst his mighty heart;
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,

Even at the base of Pompey's statue,

Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell.

Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen!

Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
While bloody treason flourished over us.
Oh, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel
The dint of pity: these are gracious drops.

Kind souls, what, weep you, when you but behold
Our Cæsar's vesture wounded? Look you here;
Here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors.
1st Cit. Oh piteous spectacle!

2d Cit. Oh noble Cæsar!

3d Cit. Oh woeful day!

4th Cit.. Oh traitors, villains!

1st Cit. Oh most bloody sight!

2d Cit. We will be revenged: revenge; about-seek-burn, fire-killslay! let not a traitor live.

Ant.

Stay, countrymen.

1st Cit. Peace, there! hear the noble Antony.

2d Cit. We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him.

Ant. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up To such a sudden flood of mutiny.

They that have done this deed are honorable:

What private griefs they have, alas! I know not,

That made them do 't; they are wise and honorable,
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.

I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts;
I am no orator, as Brutus is;

But, as you know me all, a plain, blunt man,
That love my friend, and that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him;
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves do know;

Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths,
And bid them speak for me; but, were I Brutus,

And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Cæsar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

LESSON XXVI.-END OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.

1. THE effect of Antony's artful oration was such as to fill the multitude with indignation and rage; and while some, tearing up the benches of the senate-house, formed of them a funeral pile and burned the body of Cæsar, others ran through the streets with drawn weapons and flaming torches, denouncing vengeance against the conspirators. Brutus and Cassius, and their adherents, fleeing to Greece, and thus securing the eastern provinces, prepared to defend themselves by force of arms. Antony, remaining at Rome, and aided by Lep'idus, sought to place himself at the head of the state; but he found a powerful rival in the young Octavius Cæsar, and civil war for a time raged in Italy.

2. At length Antony and Octavius, having agreed to settle their differences, marched with united forces against the conspirators, whose army they defeated in the battle of Philippi, a small town in Thrace. Both Cassius and Brutus, giving way to despair, destroyed themselves. Over the dead body, Antony did justice to the character of Brutus, whom he declared to be "the noblest Roman of them all."

"This was the noblest Roman of them all:

All the conspirators, save only he,

Did that they did in envy of great Cæsar;

He only, in a general honest thought,

And common good to all, made one of them.
His life was gentle, and the elements

So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up,
And say to all the world, This was a man !”

3. After the battle of Philippi, Octavius returned to Italy at the head of his legions, and Antony remained master of the eastern provinces. While Antony was in Asia Minor the celebrated Cleopatra came to visit him, and so captivated was the Roman with the charms and beauty of the Egyptian queen, that he accompanied her to Egypt, where he lived for a time in indolence, dissipation, and luxury, neglectful of the calls of interest, honor, and ambition. But his shameful conduct soon brought on a war between him and Octavius, and, being defeated in the naval battle of Actium, he fled again to Egypt, and there put an end to his own life.

4. Soon after the death of Antony, Octavius, at the request of the most eminent citizens, who were glad to seek refuge from anarchy and civil war in a military despotism, took the government into his own hands, and with this event, at the beginning of the 28th year before the Christian era, the history of the Roman republic ends. The senate then conferred upon Octavius the title of AUGUSTUS, or "the Divine." After a brief period of wars in some of the distant provinces, peace was established throughout the vast domains of the empire. It was at this auspicious period that Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, was born, and thus literally was his advent the herald of "peace on earth and good-will toward men."

HISTORIC ASSOCIATIONS.

WHATEVER withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me and far from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.DR. JOHNSON.