6. Again, there is no public officer in the world, but must neceffarily make a confiderable party of mankind his enemy: if he be one in judicial employment, he muft pronounce to the difadvantage of one party, and then that party that hates him, if he be an officer employed in the iffing of the public revenue, he that stays longeft for his money, hates him; if he be employed in difpenfation of rewards, offices or places, as military commanders, he that is difappointed in his expectation, or that finds lefs than he expected, hates him and it will not be material to the fafety of him that is hated, whether there be caufe or not, if the party provoked think he hath caufe, his indignation is as high as if it were juft; and most commonly is provided with a calumny to infufe into the people to make them believe it fo. And if it be faid in all these and the like cafes, the party makes as many friends as he doth enemies; for if one be disappointed, another is rewarded; and if one be pronounced againft, another is pronounced for; this mends not the matter: for fuppofed injuries are longer remembered than real benefits; and commonly he that receives a benefit, esteems it his due he that goes without it, thinks it an injury: and hatred and revenge are more active and vigilant to do mifchief upon a fuppofed injury or neglect, than duty or gratitude is to defend one, from whom either justice or benefit hath been received.

;

Upon all thefe, and many more evident reasons, it is beyond question, that no confiderate man hath reafon to be fond of any public employment, though attended with honour, power and profit, but fairly to decline it if he may : and therefore it is no wonder that Pomponius Atticus, who was a wife, knowing man, was fo far from seeking it, that he declined it when offered.

2. But fuppofing that in a calm, fedate time, this wife and good man might have been perfuaded to take an honourable public employment, and that it had not been only confiftent with his wifdom, but his duty fo to have done; and that if he had declined it, it had been either an argument of pufillanimity or foolishness, yea, and injuftice, to partake of the benefit and protection of the public minifters and officers of Rome, and to have denied the fame common offices to others, when by the fuffrages or nomination of those who were intrufted therein, he was appointed a public minifter; yet certainly confidering the time wherein he lived, and the great diftempers that prevailed in that state, his déclining of public employments, was not only excuf

able

able and juftifiable, but also very commendable, and an abftinence full of prudence and great difcretion: for he that takes a public employment in a troubled ftate, is (without the intervention of a marvellous providence) first, and before any others, expofed to the fhock of all public commotions if a faction prevail, if he either oppofe it, or be fuf-. pected by it, he is fure to be one of the firft that must be ruined by it, because he will be thought an impediment to the defign; and it is a wonder if he efeape without an exile or confifcation. On the other fide, if he be in the good opinion of that faction, and fo continued in his employment, he is under an engagement, not only in the hazard of their fortune, but also in the purfuit and execution of all those desperate enterprizes that fuch a faction thinks neceffary or convenient for their eftablishment; which if he do not, then unless they otherwife fear him, or exceedingly reverence his perfon, as one that may credit their party, he is fure to be dealt more feverely with, than if he had at first opposed them. On the other fide, if he comply with them, and ferve their turns, and profecute their defigns in the public ftation wherein he ftands, he fhall lofe his reputation, and his innocence, and be entangled in a moft bafe fervitude, and be made inftrumental in those actions which perchance he inwardly abhors; and if he ftart or boggle at them, he fhall be dealt with as the worst of enemies; and if ever there come a turn of affairs, he fhall be fure to be one of the first that is crufhed by the prevailing party: and this Cicero found to be true, to his coft; for he, that while he was but an advocate, ftood unfhaken in all those troublefome times wherein he lived (though he fometimes used his tongue with too much liberty in his public orations) yet when once he became entangled in public offices of conful and fenator, he quickly felt the power and vindictiveness of the party of Antony, upon his return; and loft his life in the fury and rage of his incenfed adverfary, which he had efcaped, had he followed the wife example of his friend Atticus, in declining public employment. And therefore Cato Uticenfis, who the greateft part of his life had been concerned in public offices and employments in Rome, yet when he found himfelf over-borne by the Cæfarean party, learned, though too late, Atticus's wifdom, and left this legacy to his fon, that he should never engage himself in the public adminiftrations, offices, or employment of the commonwealth.

And truly Atticus, by this wife abftinence from public

office

offices and employments, obtained much of that fafety and happiness which he enjoyed.

1. By this means he enjoyed himself and his tranquillity of mind and life, and all thofe advantages and opportunities of improving his learning and knowledge, which he could never have had in a public ftation.

2. By this means he kept himself free from enemies or emulation, envy and detraction, the common attendants of public and great employments.

3. By this means he kept both his fafety, his innocence, and reputation; all of which muft neceffarily be greatly endangered, if not utterly loft, had he taken upon himself any public office in thofe turbulent times.

4. By this means he preferved his power, intereft, and veneration among all parties, and was able to do better offices with the prevailing party, for the fafeguard and preservation of good men, than if he had borne the greatest offices, and with the best applause in the city of Rome, as appears by the hiftory of his life.

CHA P. X.

THE EXPEDIENT THAT ATTICUS USED TO PRESERVE HIMSELF, WAS, THE AVOIDING OF ALL THOSE OCCASIONS THAT MIGHT PROCURE UNTO HIM EMULATION OR ENVY.

THE fifth remedy that he used against the danger of tumultuous times, was, to avoid with all care all fuch things. as might procure an exile, envy, or emulation against him.

This appears already in part, by his declining of offices, of honour, of power and profit; but I fhall give this as a diftinct confideration, because I fhall evidence it with farther inftances.

When he was at Athens, he was folicited to accept of honourable employments: but although, as a private man, he did them all the friendly offices he could, yet he refused their public honours; they then defired that he would be enrolled as a free citizen of Athens; but this he alfo refufed, as knowing it would be interpreted to be a deserting of his native city of Rome, and might procure enemies, or at leaft envy: they alfo folicited him, that his ftatue might be fet

up

up at Athens, among their worthies and benefactors; but this alfo he would by no means allow of, for the fame reason; although, after his recefs from that city, the citizens, notwithstanding his refufal, did in his abfence fet up his ftatue.

And this refufing of this piece of pageantry, namely, the public fetting up of his ftatue or picture, though it feems a fmall matter, was furely an act of great prudence; for he that allows the fetting up of his ftatue or picture, firft, draws upon himself much envy: other perfons that have not the fame honour done them, malign him that hath it, as having that piece of public favour done him, which another thinks he as well at least deferves.

2. It gives unfeen detractions or cenfure, expofing to every man's eye that object that adminifters occafion of cenfure; this is that man's ftatue, that did fuch an injury, that committed fuch an error or overfight: fo it becomes a monument of fo much more disadvantage to the prototype, by how much men are more apt to take notice of, and remember the evils, than the good of any perfon. 3. If that state or city take up any diftafte against the perfon, the poor ftatue commonly receives the public contumely, and the man is profecuted in effigy; he hath committed a depofitum unto that ftate or city, that muft engage him to their perpetual fervice and pleafing of them, or in default thereof, to be the fubject of their contumely or public indignity in effigy. When he came back to Rome, befides his refufal of public and honourable offices, he kept himself in the state of a private gentleman; and notwithstanding the accefs of a fair eftate from his uncle Cæcilius, he never exceeded his former charge or method of houfe-keeping; indeed he thereupon enlarged his private liberality and beneficence to perfons that flood in need thereof; but he did not at all thereupon advance the port or equipage of his houfe-keeping or manner of living; his houfe was plain, though noble; and he never would by new building, make it stately or fplendid, but contented himself with it as he found it: and although he were rich, yet to avoid the glory of being faid to be a great purchafer, he never would make any new purchases,. but kept the poffeffions which were left him by his father and uncle; well knowing that great purchases would make a great noife and rumor, occafion envy, and become but a troublesome burden and incumbrance, rather than a benefit or advantage in a troubled ftate.

His money would be a portable commodity for his fubfiftence, and ready to fupply the neceffities and emergencies

of

of himself and his friends, when his lands must be neceffarily fixed, and in troubled times might yield him little revenue, and were of neceffity to abide the ftorms of that place wherein they lay. In fhort, he kept fuch a mediocrity in his houfe, his furniture, his houfehold expences, his entertainments, and the manner of his living, that neither expofed him to fcorn on the one hand, nor cenfure, or envy, or imputation of affecting either too much grandeur and popularity, on the other, nor confumed or wafted his eftate, but left himself in a continual capacity of fupplying the exigence of his friends, which he justly esteemed the best employment of his wealth; and yet he fo ordered his affairs and expences, with that decency and prudence, that kept him above the imputation of bafenefs or unworthy parfimony. And by this means he avoided envy on the one hand, and contempt on the other; keeping himself in a middle and conftant conduct between all extremes. It is true, in the latter end of his life, he was, by the importunity of Antonius and Octavius, drawn to match his niece into the family and relation of Octavius, which feemed to be a step beyond his degree, and that mediocrity that he used and affected in the former courfe of his life: but it was not a thing fought by him, but from him, the great triumviri of Rome being ambitious of his affinity, whom they very well knew to be a man of as great intereft, and esteem, and power in the city of Rome, as any private perfon could poffibly be; and that intereft, efteem, and power bottomed upon as firm a bafis as could poffibly be expected; namely, the native and experimented prudence and worth of the man: and therefore they thought, that whatever mutability of fortune their high flying attempts might meet with, yet they had, by this affinity with Atticus, a more firm intereft in Rome, than if they had matched their relations into the family of a commander of an army of forty thousand men. Befide all this, he was rich,and might probably leave a fair fortune, which he accordingly did. laftly, the times now feemed pretty well fettled; the triumvirate of Antonius, Octavius, and Lepidus had maftered all oppofition; and although there afterwards broke out wars between Octavius and Antony, yet that was not long before Atticus 's death; and as he was not likely to live to fee thofe eruptions, fo if he fhould, he could not probably furvive their iffue; neither did he: for he died the year before the battle of Actium, wherein Antony was overthrown by Octavius: and yet if thefe differences had been in his

And

profpect,