We find him at one time admitting that Catiline had almost persuaded him of his honesty and merit, nay, even seeking a political union with him ; at another, when his alliance had been rejected and an election was at hand, declaiming against him as a murderer, and as a profligate horribly con spicuous among profligates. And, lastly, though Sallust s vivid narrative is consistent throughout, it is not hard to see that he cherished very bitter feelings against the democratical party. Nevertheless, we have certainly no ground for accepting the view which makes Catiline a worthy successor of the Gracchi, an honest enemy of the hateful oligarchy, and a disinterested champion of the pro vincials. The following is probably as accurate a statement of the case as can now be given. There was at the time on the part of many of the Roman nobles a determination to raise themselves to power, despite the opposition of the senate, while the bolder among them were quite prepared to resort to force, if that appeared likely to be for their advantage. When, therefore, the senatorial party successfully assumed the aggressive, and its leader, Cicero, ventured on the bold course which we have described, they at once took up arms. Among them Catiline stands out conspicuous, and receives all the attacks of their enemies. Whether he was morally worse than the rest we cannot say with confidence ; it was enough that he was far the foremost in force of body and
of mind.CATLIN, George (1796-1872), a writer on the North American Indians, was born at Wilkesbarre, Luzerne Co., Pennsylvania, in 1796. He was brought up to the law, and practised that profession in Philadelphia for two years ; but art was his favourite pursuit, and forsaking the law he established himself at New York as a portrait painter. In 1832, his attention having been called to the fact that the pure American race was disappearing before the march of civilization, he resolved to rescue from oblivion the types and customs of this singular people. With this object in view he spent many years among the Indians in North and South America. He lived with them, acquired their languages, and studied very thoroughly their habits, customs, and mode of life, making copious notes and many studies for paintings. In 1840 he came to Europe with his collection of paintings ; and in the following year he published at London a work on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians in two volumes, illustrated with 300 engravings. In 1844 he published The North American Portfolio, containing 25 plates of hunting scenes and amusements in the Rocky Mountains and the prairies of America. This was followed in 1848 by Eight Years Travels and Residence in Europe, in which Catlin narrates the adventures of three different parties of American Indians, whom he had introduced to the courts of England, France, and Belgium. In 1861 he published a curious little volume, in " manugraph," entitled The Breath of Life, on the advantage of keeping one s mouth habitually closed, especially during sleep ; and in 1868 appeared his Last Rambles amongst the Indians of the Rocky Mountains and the Andes. He died in Jersey City, New Jersey, December 22, 1872.
CATO, M. Porcius, surnamed Sapiens, Priscus, Censorius, or Major, was born at Tusculum in the year 234 B.C. of an ancient plebeian family, noted for some military services, but not ennobled by the discharge of the higher civil offices. This man may be taken as a type of the genuine Roman character at the critical moment when the free state was in its fullest vigour, but was threatened with sudden and rapid decline. His early youth fell in with the period of Hannibal s invasion of Italy. Before he had reached middle age Rome had escaped from imminent danger of destruction, and had entered upon its career of universal conquest beyond the limits of the Italian peninsula. He was bred, after the manner of his Latin forefathers, to agriculture, to which he devoted himself assiduously when not engaged in military service, But having attracted the notice of L. Valerius Flaccus, a magnate of the city, he was brought to Rome, and became successively quaestor (204), aedile (199), praetor (198), and consul (195). Meanwhile he served in Africa tinder Scipio, and took part in the crowning campaign of Zama (202). He had a command in Sardinia, where he first showed his strict public morality, and again in Spain, which he reduced to subjection, and gained thereby the honour of a triumph (194). In the year 191 he acted as military tribune in the war against Antiochus, and con tributed to the great revolution by which Greece was finally delivered from the encroachments of the East, and sub jected to the dominion of the West. From this period the morals and principles of the Romans became fatally affected by their contact with the advanced arid corrupt civilization of the Hellenic world. Cato was among the first of his countrymen to perceive the danger, and to denounce it. His character as an able soldier was now well established ; and henceforth he preferred to serve the state in the Forum at home. For several years he occupied himself in scrutinizing the conduct of the candidates for public honours, and whenever he seemed to detect in them a decline from the stainless virtue of the olden time, he persistently opposed their claims. He questioned the " pretended battles " of Minucius Thermus, and baffled his demand for a triumph (190); he denounced the "pecula tion " of Acilius Glabrio, the conqueror of Antiochus (189) ; he declaimed against Fulvius Nobilior. for meanly flattering Ms soldiers, and for carrying about with him in his campaigns a " frivolous verse-writer," such as Ennius. If he was not personally engaged in the prosecution of the Scipios (Africanus and Asiaticus) for corruption, it was by his spirit that the attack upon them was animated. Africanus, indeed, refused to reply to the charge, saying only, " Romans, this is the day on which I conquered Hannibal," and the citizens absolved him by acclamation ; nevertheless, so marked was the blot which Cato had hit in the character of the self-seeking commanders of the time, that Africanus himself found it necessary to retire self- banished to his villa at Liternum.
more deeply-seated and more widely-prevalent than these. The pride of conquest, the infection of foreign manners, and the dissolution of national ideas and prejudices had made formidable inroads upon the narrow simplicity of the ancient Romans. Both the Etruscans and the Greeks were imbued with a more refined and artificial culture ; and with their higher education and enhanced power of persuasion, both these peoples were now exerting a powerful influence upon the minds of their conquerors. Cato conceived it to be his special mission to resist this invasion. It was in the discharge of the censorship that his character as a maintainer of primitive discipline was most strongly exhibited, and hence that he derived the title by which he is most generally distinguished. He revised with unsparing severity the lists of senators and knights, ejecting from either order the men whom he judged unworthy of it, either from their want of the prescribed means, or from notorious crimes or vices. The expulsion of the great imperator L. Quinctius Flamininus was a splendid example of. his rigid justice. He regulated with pedantic strictness the expenses of the table, and also of dress and personal ornament, especially of the women. He contended gallantly, but even more ineffectually, against bribery at the public electrons ; and
though he gained little success in the crusades to which
