The list of his philosophical works is interesting and may well be given here. The _Paradoxa_ (written 46 B.C.), [75] explains certain paradoxes of the Stoics. The _Consolatio_ (45 B.C.) was written soon after the death of his daughter Tullia, whom he tenderly loved. It is lost with the exception of a few fragments. The same fate has befallen the _Hortensius_, which would have been an extremely interesting treatise. The _De finibus bonorum et malorum_, in five books, was composed in 45 B.C. In the first part M. Manlius Torquatus expounds the Epicurean views, which Cicero confutes (books i. ii.); in the second, Cato acts as champion of the Stoics, who are shown by Cicero to be by no means so exclusive as they profess (books iii. iv.); in the third and last Piso explains the theories of the Academy and the Lyceum. The _Academica_ is divided into two editions; the first, called _Lucullus_, is still extant; the second, dedicated to Varro, exists in a considerable portion. The _Tusculan Disputations, Timaeus_ (now lost), and the _De Natura Deorum_, were all composed in the same year (45 B.C.). The latter is in the form of a dialogue between Velleius the Epicurean, Balbus the Stoic, and Cotta the Academic, which is supposed to have been held in 77 B.C. The following year were produced _Laelius or De Amicitia, De Divinatione_, an important essay, _De Fato, Cato Major_ or _De Senectute, De Gloria_ (now lost), _De Officiis_, an excellent moral treatise addressed to his son, and _De Virtutibus_, which with the _Oeconomics and Protagoras_ (translations from the Greek), and the _De Auguriis_ (51 B.C.?) complete the list of his strictly philosophical works. Political science is treated by him in the _De Republica_, of which the first two books remain in a tolerably complete state, the other four only in fragments, [76] and in the _De Legibus_, of which three books only remain. The former was commenced in the year 54 B.C. but not published until two years later, at which time probably the latter treatise was written, but apparently never published. While in these works the form of dialogue is borrowed from the Greek, the argument is strongly coloured by his patriotic sympathies. He proves that the Roman polity, which fuses in a happy combination the three elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, is the best suited for organic development and external dominion; and he treats many constitutional and legal questions with eloquence and insight. Our loss of the complete text of these books is to be deplored rather on account of the interesting information and numerous allusions they contained, than from their value as an exposition of the principles of law or government. The style is highly elaborated, and its even flow is broken by beautiful quotations from the old poets, especially the _Annals_ of Ennius.