Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate,
Amid the crowd of patriots, and his arm
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove
When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud
On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel,
And bade the Father of his Country hail!
For, lo! the tyrant prostrate in the dust,
And Rome again is free.
PLEASURES OF IMAG. b. i. ver. 487.
According to Quintilian, Brutus was fitter for philosophical speculations, and books of moral theory, than for the career of public oratory. In the former he was equal to the weight and dignity of his subject: you clearly saw that he believed what he said. Egregius vero multoque quam in orationibus præstantior Brutus, suffecit ponderi rerum; scias eum sentire quæ dicit. Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1.