[237] The circumstance of birth, etc. Naturam unam et communem omnium existumo. "Nascendi sortem" is the explanation which Dietsch gives to naturam. One man is born as well as another, but the difference between men is made by their different modes of action; a difference which the nobles falsely suppose to proceed from fortune. "Voltaire, Mohammed, Act.I., sce. iv., has expressed the sentiment of Sallust exactly:
Les mortels sont égaux, ce n'est point la naissance,
C'est la seule vertu qui fait leur différence." Burnouf.
[238] And could it be inquired of the fathers, etc.—Ac, si jam ex patribus Alibini aut Bestiae quaeri posset, etc. Patres, in this passage, is not, as Anthon imagines, the same as majores; as is apparent from the word gigni. The fathers of Albinus and Bestia were probably dead at the time that Marius spoke. The passage which Anthon quotes from Plutarch to illustrate patres, is not applicable, for the word there is [Greek: pragonoi: Epunthaneto ton paronton, ei mae kai tous ekeinon oiontai progonous auto mallon an emxasthai paraplaesious ekgonous apolitein, ate dae maed autous di eugeneian, all ap aretaes kai kalon ergon endoxous genomenous.] Vit. Mar. c. 9. "He would then ask the people whether they did not think that the ancestors of those men would have wished rather to leave a posterity like him, since they themselves had not risen to glory by their high birth, but by their virtue and heroic achievements?" Langhorne.
[239] Abstinence—Innocentiae. Abstinence from all vicious indulgence.
[240] Honorable exertion—Virtutis. See notes on Cat. c. 1, and Jug. c. 1.
[241] They occupy the greatest part of their orations in extolling their ancestors—Plerâque oratione majores suos extollunt. "They extol their ancestors in the greatest part of their speech."
[242] The glory of ancestors sheds a light on their posterity, Juvenal, viii.138:
Incipit ipsorum contra te stare parentum
Nobilitas, claramque facem praeferre pudendis.
Thy fathers' virtues, clear and bright, display
Thy shameful deeds, as with the light of day.
[243] I feel assured—Ex animi sententiâ. "It was a common form of strong asseveration." Gerlach.