He did not speak grandly of the duty of a patron to his clients, and then open his hands to illicit payments.

He did not call upon the Senate for high duty, and then devote himself to luxury and pleasure.

He had a _beau ideal_ of the manner in which a Roman Senator should live and work, and he endeavored to work and live up to that ideal.

There was no period after his Consulship in which he was not aware of his own failure.

Nevertheless, with constant labor, but with intermittent struggles, he went on, till, at the end, in the last fiery year of his existence, he taught himself again to think that even yet there was a chance.