The boastings of Cicero have been preserved for us.

We have to bethink ourselves that his words are 2000 years old.

There is such a touch of humanity in them, such a feeling of latter-day civilization and almost of Christianity, that we are apt to condemn what remains in them of paganism, as though they were uttered yesterday.

When we come to the coarseness of his attacks, his descriptions of Piso by-and-by, his abuse of Gabinius, and his invectives against Antony; when we read his altered opinions, as shown in the period of Caesar's dominion, his flattery of Caesar when in power, and his exultations when Caesar has been killed; when we find that he could be coarse in his language and a bully, and servile--for it has all to be admitted--we have to reflect under what circumstances, under what surroundings, and for what object were used the words which displease us.

Speaking before the full court at this trial, he dared to say he knew how to live as a man and to carry himself as a gentleman.