My object has been to exhibit Cicero not only as an orator and a politician, but as he was in private life, surrounded by his family and fi'iends speaking and acting like other men in the ordinary affairs of home. And the more we accustom ourselves to re gard the ancients as persons of like passions as our selves, and familiarize ourselves with the idea of them as fathers, husbands, friends, and gentlemen, the better we shall understand them.