other pulled him backward by the hair, and the third ran him through. The death was more speedy, perhaps, than was fit; but, in that he was the first tyrant that was killed by the contrivance of his wife, and as his corpse was abused, thrown out, and trodden under foot by the Pheræans, he seems to have suffered what his villanies deserved.

Greek horseman. (From the Panathenaic frieze.)

TIMOLEON.

T

IT was for the sake of others that I first commenced writing biographies; but I find myself going on and attaching myself to it for my own; the virtues of these great men serving me as a sort of looking-glass, in which I may see how, more or less, to adjust and adorn my own life. Indeed, it can be compared to nothing but a daily living and associating together; we receive, as it were, in our inquiry, and entertain each successive guest; view

From the last book of the Iliad (xxiv. 609). As they sat at meat together in the tent, after Achilles had consented to give Priam Hector's body, Priam son of Dardanus eyed Achilles, admiring his stature and his qualities, and his appearance as it were of a god, and Achilles in turn looked with wonder on Priam.

and select from his actions all that is noblest and wor

thiest to know.

Ah me!

Than this what greater pleasure could there be?*

or, what more effective means to one's moral improvement? Democritus tells us we ought to pray that of the phantasms appearing in the circumambient air such may present themselves to us as are propitious, and that we may rather meet with those that are agreeable to our natures and are good, than the evil and unfortunate; which is simply introducing into philosophy a doctrine untrue in itself and leading to endless superstitions. My method on the contrary is, by the study of history and by the familiarity acquired in writing, to habituate my memory to receive and retain images of the best and worthiest characters. I thus am enabled to free myself from any ignoble, malicious, or sordid impressions contracted from the contagion of ill company, which I may be unavoidably engaged in, by the remedy of turning my thoughts in a happy and calm temper to view these noble examples. Of this kind are those of Timoleon the Corinthian, and of Æmilius Paulus, with whom among the Romans I shall compare him; men who were both of them famous for their virtues alike and their successes, and who have left it doubtful whether they owed their

* To come to shore, and in one's house again
Lie still and listen to the falling rain.

It is a fragment of Sophocles, found more complete elsewhere.
The last line and a half are quoted in a letter of Cicero's.