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HOW TO GET STRONG
could be seen lying on the ground, wrapped in his military cloak among the sentries and pickets. About his dress he was careless; it was nothing better than that of his humblest comrades. But his arms and horses were the best that could be found. He was an admirable rider; a skilful man at arms; and as brave as he was skilful."
If Vincenz Pils's conception of his physique was correct, his body was a fit home for that great mind. Look at his statue and find a weak spot. On the contrary, where do you find such a powerful man to-day? No wonder that with that head and that spirit, and that rare training, he did wondrous work, when he had such a body as that to call on as he liked!
CICERO (109–43 B.C.)
In the tottering Republic, Cicero, the greatest orator Rome ever had, gave his time, like Gladstone, to literature, oratory, and politics. Believing "that a man is born, not for himself alone, but for his fatherland"; and acting as he believed, he soon came to the power which he fairly won. Deftly weaving in all of art and science that close study could learn, he was keen of insight; clear and lucid of speech; "the mind that never tired; founder and master of the elegant style; his writings became the source of correct and standard speech; a perfect storehouse of classical prose diction." And happily we have many of those writings in our homes and schools to-day. He himself quotes this from Cæsar's treatise De Analogia: "Some men, by study and practice, have attained to an admirable power of expressing their thoughts; and we must surely be of opinion that you, who may also be called the originator and inventor of this fulness of vocabulary, have rendered a signal service to the name and honor of Rome."
The same gifts and severe labor that gave us this great master of prose made him an orator—witty, refined, brilliant, elevated—of a "true appreciation of the needs of his time." Quintilian says: "He knew that he had wholly devoted himself to the imitation of
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