In respect to its wickedness, Cato, not having had the light of Christianity before him, is to be leniently judged.

As to the folly of the deed, however, he is to be held strictly accountable.

If he had lived and yielded to his conqueror, as he might have done gracefully and without dishonor, since all his means of resistance were exhausted, Caesar would have treated him with generosity and respect, and would have taken him to Rome; and as within a year or two of this time Caesar himself was no more, Cato's vast influence and power might have been, and un doubtedly would have been, called most effectually into action for the benefit of his country.

If any one, in defending Cato, should say he could not foresee this, we reply, he _could_ have foreseen it; not the precise events, indeed, which occurred, but he could have foreseen that vast changes must take place, and new aspects of affairs arise, in which his powers would be called into requisition.

We can _always_ foresee in the midst of any storm, however dark and gloomy, that clear skies will certainly sooner or later come again; and this is just as true metaphorically in respect to the vicissitudes of human life, as it is literally in regard to the ordinary phenomena of the skies.
[Sidenote: Caesar in Spain.] [Sidenote: Defeat of Pompey's sons.] From Africa Caesar returned to Rome, and from Rome he went to subdue the resistance which was offered by the sons of Pompey in Spain.