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Chap, xliv] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 487 truth and falsehood, he applied, as an infallible rule, the logic of Aristotle and the stoics, reduced particular cases to general principles, and diffused over the shapeless mass the light of order and eloquence. Cicero, his contemporary and friend, declined the reputation of a professed lawyer ; but the jurisprudence of his country was adorned by his incomparable genius, which converts into gold every object that it touches. After the ex- ample of Plato, he composed a republic ; and, for the use of his republic, a treatise of laws, in which he labours to deduce from a celestial origin the wisdom and justice of the Eoman constitu- tion. The whole universe, according to his sublime hypothesis, forms one immense commonwealth ; gods and men, who par- ticipate of the same essence, are members of the same com- munity ; reason prescribes the law of nature and nations ; and all positive institutions, however modified by accident or custom, are drawn from the rule of right, which the Deity has inscribed on every virtuous mind. From these philosophical mysteries, he mildly excludes the sceptics who refuse to believe, and the epicureans who are unwilling to act. The latter disdain the care of the republic : he advises them to slumber in their shady gardens. But he humbly intreats that the new Academy would be silent, since her bold objections would too soon destroy the fair and well-ordered structure of his lofty system. 56 Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno he represents as the only teachers who arm and instruct a citizen for the duties of social life. Of these, the armour of the stoics 57 was found to be of the firmest temper; and it was chiefly worn, both for use and ornament, in the schools of jurisprudence. From the Portico, the Eoman civilians learned to live, to reason, and to die ; but they imbibed in some degree the prejudices of the sect : the love of paradox, the per- tinacious habits of dispute, and a minute attachment to words and verbal distinctions. The superiority of form to matter was whose praises are elegantly varied in the classic Latinity of the Eoman Gravina (p. 60). 56 Perturbatrioern autem omnium harum rerum academiam, hanc ab Arcesila et Carneade recentem, exorenius ut sileat, nam si invaserit in hsec, quae satis scite in- structa et composita videantur, nimis edet ruinas, quam quidem ego placare cupio, submovere non audeo (de Legibus, i. 13). From this passage alone Bentley (Remarks on Free thinking, p. 250) might have learned how firmly Cicero believed in the specious doctrines which he has adorned. 57 The stoic philosophy was first taught at Rome by Panastius, the friend of the younger Scipio (see his life in the Mem. de l'Acaddmie des Inscriptions, torn. x. p. 75-89).