of their fatal Purpose, they all swore Fealty to Cæsar; and protesting to hold his Person ever sacred, they touch'd the Altar with those Hands, which they had already arm'd for his Destruction[1].
I need not put you in mind of the famous and applauded Story of Themistocles, and of his Patience towards Eurybiades, the Spartan, his commanding Officer, who, heated by a Debate, lifted his Cane to him in a Council of War (the same Thing as if he had cudgel'd him) Strike! cries the Athenian, Strike! but hear me.
You are too good a Scholar not to discover Socrates and his Athenian Club in my last Story; and you would certainly observe, that it is exactly copy'd from Xenophon, with a Variation only of the Names[2]. And I think I have fairly made appear, that an Athenian Man of Merit might be such a one as with us would pass for Incestuous, a Parricide, an Assassin, an ungrateful, perjur'd Traitor, and something else too abominable to be nam'd; not to mention his Rusticity and Ill-manners. And having liv'd in this Manner, his Death may be entirely suitable: He
may
