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PREFACE
xi

reach the same standard. Cæsar's speeches to his troops (Book I. 340, Book VII. 292) are, for example, full of conscious power. They are the words of a victorious general who claims victory as his right; who speaks to his soldiers as comrades, and demands of them the defence of their common country. Chivalrous to a Roman foe, he despises all else and calls upon his army to do the same. Pompeius' first speech, on the other hand (Book II. 597), is boastful and pretentious; and that in Book VII. 407, though in much better strain than the former one, fails to convince or persuade. When in Book VIII. he advocates an alliance with Parthia, the badness of his cause is not compensated by the logic with which he supports it.

Next in importance to the two opposing champions is Cato. Introduced to us in Book II. as the stern and rigid patriot, in Book IX. he embodies his principles in action. He is at once the unflinching commander, the philosopher who in peril and temptation loftily proclaims the tenets of his school, the inspired leader who some day shall receive divine honours, the captain who shares the lot of the meanest soldier, the statesman who upholds, amid disaster and defeat, the cause of public freedom.

The poem has, of course, all the blemishes that might be expected from the youth of its author. There are passages which offend against our sense of justice; we are asked to admire what is morally not admirable. There are many mistakes, specially in geography; there is obscurity, specially in astronomical matters; there are ghastly details of horrors, lengthy episodes not connected with the plot, and frequent exaggerations, as in the description of Scæva's exploits. There are also details of which the reader wearies, as in the sea fight in Book III. But a spirited and patriotic apostrophe, or the vigorous eloquence of Cato or Cæsar, or a powerful and dramatic description combine to give the poem force, and to maintain its power and interest; and impart to it a

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