[30]
Do we all who are occupied in the affairs of the state, and who are surrounded by such
perils and dangers in life, appear to be so narrow-minded, as, though to the last moment of
our lives we have never passed one tranquil or easy moment, to think that everything will
perish at the same time as ourselves? Ought we not, when many most illustrious men have with
great care collected and left behind them statues and images, representations not of their
minds but of their bodies, much more to desire to leave behind us a copy of our counsels and
of our virtues, wrought and elaborated by the greatest genius? I thought, at the very moment
of performing them, that I was scattering and disseminating all the deeds which I was
performing, all over the world for the eternal recollection of nations. And whether that
delight is to be denied to my soul after death, or whether, as the wisest men have thought, it
will affect some portion of my spirit, at all events, I am at present delighted with some such
idea and hope.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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