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34 À PANEGYRICE
Hiftorians for an Account of paft Ages, we fhall
find no Princes more Weak, nor any People
more Slavifh and Wretched, than where the
Adminiftration of Affairs fell on the Shoulders
of fome Learned Bookiſh Governour. Of the
Truth whereof the Two Catos are Exemplary
Inſtances : The firſt of which Embroiled the
City, and tired out the Senate by his tedious
Harangues of defending himfelf, and accufing
others ; the youmger was an unhappy Occafion
of the Lofs of the Peoples Liberty, while by
improper Methods he pretended to maintain it.
To theſe may be added Brurus, Ca/fius, the
Two Gracchi, and Cicero himfelf, who was no
leſs Fatal to Rome, than his Parallel Demoſt¬
henes was to Athens : As likewiſe Marcus
Antoninus, whom vre may allow to have been
a Good Emperor, yet the lefs fuch for his
being a Philoſopher ; and certainly he did not
do half that Kindnefs to his Empire by his
own prudent Management of Affairs, as he
did Miſchief by leaving fuch a’ Degenerate
Succeffor as his Son Commodus proved to be.
But it is a common Obſervation, that A Wife
Father has many times a Foolifh Son, Nature
fo contriving it, left the Taint of Wifdom,
like Hereditary Diftempers, fhould otherwife
deſcend by Propagation, Thus Zally's Son
Marcus, though Bred at Athens, proved but
a dull, infipid Soul; and Socrates his Children
had (as one ingenioufly expreffes it) more of
the Mother than the Father, [Fre XE}
a Phrafe for their being Fools. However it
were the more excufable, tho’ Wife Men are
fo Aukward and Unhandy in the ordering of
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