Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1889-04-11
AN HISTORICAL STUDY.
The Conspiracy Against Caesar and Shake
Deare's Veracftv.

peare's veracity.
The conspiracy against Cesar was
a coalition between two separate
parties of maicontents--the remnant
of the old conservatives, who found
it practically impossible, despite all
their efforts, to adapt themselves to a
state of PERSONAL subserviency and
civic inaction, and the ambitious Gen.
erals who had accompanied Cesar on
his campaigns, and were not satisfied
with their share of the spoil Our old
acquaintance, Caius Cassius. whom we
first encountered fighting gallantly in
Cilicia, but OF whom we learned, so to
speak, in infancy that the fault of in
feriority lis not in our stars, but in
ourselves" may be regarded as the
type of the second class of conspira-
tors, as Marcus Brutus was the great
eXemplar of the first. Early in the
year 700, before the death of Tullia,
there had been a particularly lively
interchange of letters between Cassius
and Cicero, who, it appears, had known
each other from ,boyhood. For the
most part, l think the deeper we dip
into authentic Roman history and the
contemporary writer's of Caesars time,
the more striking do we find the main
veracity of that great Shakesperean
drama from which most of us derived
our first clear impressions. of the year
81 b. c. The author of the tragedy OF
Julius Caesar not only knew all that
was to be known in his time about the
men of that great year, but ne came
much nearer than some scholars will
admit to knowing all that is now to be
known. Not even the stupendous labors
OF MOmmsen have awaited materially to
modify the outlines of his Brutus, his
Antony. nor yet his Caesar. But the
real Cassius, if not positively misrep.
resented, appears to have been more,
and in some respects other, than the
instigator of Brutus in the play. For
one thing, he was decidedly literary
and more speculative in his turn, and
had lately suffered conversion from
Stoicism to Epicureanism, wherein
Cicero comments in the letters afore.
said with abundance OF pleasant ban
ter. He employs pompous profusion
of philosophical terms, both Latin
and Greek, appending, in parentheses,
las your new friends say. you
are, OF course, aware that Catius In
suber, the Epicurean, bestowed the
name of SpectrG on those Invisible
i.h
Democritus before him had called
eidol0. Now, even surprising
man to be able to coniure
up these specters before his
eyes when he pleases, | fail to see how
they can can touch the mind. You
will have to enlighten me when you
come, as to whether your specter is so
far subject to my control as to come
rushing at me the moment | think of
you (Which would not be so remark
able, indeed, in your case. who are
ensconced in my heart of hearts,; but
will the eid0lon, say. OF the island of
Britain fly to my arms when | begin
thinking of that?''
ut is hardly possible, Cicero says,
in another letter, ito be in earnest
about any thing without running some
risk. Then let us have a good laugh,
methinks | hear you say. BY Heaven,
it is not so easy! Still, what other
distraction have we from our present
annoyances? Where, then. is phi
losophy?' Well, mine is in the gym
nasium, and yours is in the kitchenm
Harriet Waters Preston, in Atlantic.