It is not given to the age in which such men live to know them.
Could their age even recognize them, they would not overstep their age as they do.

Looking back at him now, we can see how like a Christian was the man--so like, that in essentials we can hardly see the difference.
He could love another as himself--as nearly as a man may do; and he taught such love as a doctrine.[28] He believed in the existence of one supreme God.[29] He believed that man would rise again and live forever in some heaven.[30] I am conscious that I cannot much promote this view of Cicero's character by quoting isolated passages from his works--words which taken alone may be interpreted in one sense or another, and which should be read, each with its context, before their due meaning can be understood.

But I may perhaps succeed in explaining to a reader what it is that I hope to do in the following pages, and why it is that I undertake a work which must be laborious, and for which many will think that there is no remaining need.
I would not have it thought that, because I have so spoken of Cicero's aspirations and convictions, I intend to put him forth as a faultless personage in history.

He was much too human to be perfect.

Those who love the cold attitude of indifference may sing of Cato as perfect.
Cicero was ambitious, and often unscrupulous in his ambition.