It will, I think, be admitted that their tone is quite different from that used by himself.

There are none, indeed, from Atticus--none written under terms of such easy friendship as prevailed when many were written by Cicero himself.

It will probably be acknowledged that his manner of throwing himself open to his correspondent was peculiar to him.

If this be so, he should surely have the advantage as well as the disadvantage of his own mode of utterance.
The reader who allows himself to think that the true character of the man is to be read in the little sly things he said to Atticus, but that the nobler ideas were merely put forth to cajole the public, is as unfair to himself as he is to Cicero.
In reading the entire correspondence--the letters from Cicero either to Atticus or to others--it has to be remembered that in the ordinary arrangement of them made by Graevius[138] they are often incorrectly paced in regard to chronology.

In subsequent times efforts have been made to restore them to their proper position, and so they should be read.