In the third he asks Metellus for his aid, telling the Consul that unless it be given soon the man for whom it is asked will no longer be living to receive it. Metellus did give the aid very cordially. It has been remarked that Cicero did nothing for literature during his banishment, either by writing essays or preparing speeches; and it has been implied that the prostration of mind arising from his misfortunes must have been indeed complete, when a man whose general life was made marvellous by its fecundity had been repressed into silence. It should, however, be borne in mind that there could be no inducement for the writing of speeches when there was no opportunity of delivering them. As to his essays, including what we call his Philosophy and his Rhetoric, they who are familiar with his works will remember how apt he was, in all that he produced, to refer to the writings of others. He translates and he quotes, and he makes constant use of the arguments and illustrations of those who have gone before him. He was a man who rarely worked without the use of a library. When I think how impossible it would be for me to repeat this oft-told tale of Cicero's life without a crowd of books within reach of my hand, I can easily understand why Cicero was silent at Thessalonica and Dyrrachium. It has been remarked also by a modern critic that we find "in the letters from exile a carelessness and inaccuracy of expression which contrasts strongly with the style of his happier days." I will not for a moment put my judgment in such a matter in opposition to that of Mr. Tyrrell--but I should myself have been inclined rather to say that the style of Cicero's letters varies constantly, being very different when used to Atticus, or to his brother, or to lighter friends such as Poetus and Trebatius; and very different again when business of state was in hand, as are his letters to Decimus Brutus, Cassius Brutus, and Plancus. To be correct in familiar letters is not to charm. A studied negligence is needed to make such work live to posterity--a grace of loose expression which may indeed have been made easy by use, but which is far from easy to the idle and unpractised writer. His sorrow, perhaps, required a style of its own. I have not felt my own untutored perception of the language to be offended by unfitting slovenliness in the expression of his grief. APPENDICES TO VOLUME I. APPENDIX A. (_See_ ch. II., note [39]) _THE BATTLE OF THE EAGLE AND THE SERPENT._ Homer, Iliad, lib. xii, 200: [Greek: Hoi rh' eti mermêrizon ephestaotes para taphrôi. Ornis gar sphin epêlthe perêsemenai memaôsin, Aietos upsipetês ep' aristera laon eergôn, Phoinêenta drakonta pherôn onuchessi pelôron, Zôon et' aspaironta; kai oupô lêtheto charmês. Kopse gar auton echonta kata stêthos para deirên, Idnôtheis opisô; ho d' apo ethen êke chamaze, Algêsas odunêisi, mesoi d' eni kabbal' homilôi; Autos de klanxas peteto pnoêis anemoio.]