of all our respective duties, public and private, and for the acquisition of necessary knowledge, in any degree of perfection, with how much pleasure and improvement might a great part of it be spent, in admiring the beauties of this wonderful orb!"-This observation is in the true spirit of Plato. Nothing can be more delightful, or more essentially profitable, than a whole life, spent in such an elegant and unsatiating employment. The objects are so numerous and diversified, their respective properties so distinct, their uses so important, and their beauties so alluring, that no one, duly initiated into her secrets, retires from her study with weariness or disgust. XXXVIII. Cicero, who valued himself more upon his taste for the cultivation of philosophy, than upon his talent for oratory, seems not to have felt the truth of an adage, so common in Europe at the present day, "that the master of many mansions has no home;" for he had no less, than eighteen different residences in various parts of Italy.They were all erected in such beautiful situations, that he was induced to call them "the eyes of Italy."-His retreat at Tusculum was, how*Note 12. ever, his favourite residence.-This spot was possessed, previous to those tumults in Italy, which have robbed it of all its models of the fine arts, by a Basilian convent of Grecian monks, called Grotta Ferrata; and it was the favourite amusement of the brothers of that monastery to exhibit, to learned and enlightened travellers, the remains of Cicero's buildings, and the small aqueducts, that watered his garden. This retreat the orator embellished with every specimen of art, that his friend Atticus could purchase for him at Athens: -It was the most elegant mansion of that elegant age; and the beauty of the landscapes around it, adding lustre to the building, refined the taste of its accomplished possessor *. XXXIX. Diocletian, when he selected a spot for his retirement, took peculiar care, that his palace should command every beauty, which the nature of the country would admit." The views,” says Mr. Adams†, "were no less beautiful, than the soil and climate were inviting: towards the west, lay the fertile shore, which stretched along the Adriatic, in which a num *Note 13. + Antiquities of Diocletian's palace at Spalatro, p. 67. ber of small islands are scattered in such a manner, as to give that part of the sea the appearance of a great lake. On the north lies the bay, which led to the ancient city of Salona: and the country beyond it, appearing in sight, forms a proper contrast to that more extensive prospect of water, which the Adriatic presents both to the south and to the east. Towards the north, the view was terminated by high and irregular mountains, situated at a proper distance, and in many places, covered with villages, woods and vineyards.”The example of Diocletian was, long after, remembered by Charles the Fifth of Spain, who in imitating his Roman prototype, derived but little comparative fame, and deserved less.-It was the extreme beauty of the situation of the monastery of St. Justus, belonging to the order of St. Jerome, which first inspired that restless despot with an idea of quitting a world, he had governed so long and so malignantly.—As he passed near that monastery, many years before his retirement, he remarked to his attendants, that it was a spot, to which Diocletian might have retired with pleasure. The remembrance of this place never deserted him;—and, at length, weary of the world, he withdrew to the melancholy of a cloister*, where, in silence and solitude, he entombed his ambition, resigned his plans, and, in the hope of conciliating posterity, derived some portion of consolation for having so long agitated Europe by his projects, his devastations and his public murders. XL. The imagination can select few objects, on which it more delights to repose, than the retirement of a man of talents and integrity from the vortex of public life.-Surrounded by the beauties of the vast creation, All the distant din the world can keep, Rolls o'er his grotto and but soothes his sleep. Such was the retirement of Scipio; when, rich in an approving conscience, he retired from the malicious persecution of his enemies, to philosophic ease and independence at his villa of Liternum.-There, charmed with the diversity of its landscapes, in the agreeable conversation of Terence, Lelius and Lucilius, and in cultivating his farm, he enjoyed an evening of life, truly enviable * Sandov. ii. 607. Zuniga. 40. Thuan. Lib. xvii. 609. Robertson. 260. for its tranquillity, innocence and glory.—There it was, he outlived all his injuries, and all the calumnies, that had been propagated against him.— XLI. And here, my Lelius, perhaps you will excuse me for observing, that calumny,—that public scourge of private life!-is the almost natural result of permitting a slanderer to escape the odium of a public exposition.-A calumniator, "whose tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile," ought imperiously to be exposed; not only for the sake of truth, but for the welfare of society at large. For who is to guard against this public pest, unless his character is displayed" to the garish eye of day," any more, than against a felon, unless he be convicted?-He, therefore, who punishes the one, performs as great an obligation to society, as he, who prosecutes the other *. XLII. Armed with all the mean insolence of security, and conscious of a willing audience, he hisses, from behind his curtain, at a thousand *By an ancient law of Scotland a criminal of this sort was punished with death. |