a market-town of Flintshire in North Wales, situated in W. Long. 3° 25' N. Lat. 53° 20'.

CÆSALPINIA BRASILETTO, or Brazil-wood: a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the decandra class of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 33rd order, Lomentaceae. The calyx is quintupled, with the lowest segment larger in proportion. There are five petals, with the lowest more beautiful than the rest. It is a leguminous plant. Of this there are three species, the most remarkable of which is the brasiliensis, commonly called Brasiletto. It grows naturally in the warmest parts of America, from whence the wood is imported for the dyers, who use it much. The demand has been so great, that none of the large trees are left in any of the Brazil plantations; so that Mr Catesby owns himself ignorant of the dimensions to which they grow. The largest remaining are not above two inches in thickness, and eight or nine feet in height. The branches are slender and full of small prickles; the leaves are pinnated; the lobes growing opposite to one another, broad at their ends, with one notch. The flowers are white, papilionaceous, with many stamina and yellow apices, growing in a pyramidal spike, at the end of a long flender stalk: the pods inclose several small round seeds. The colour produced from this wood is greatly improved by solution of tin in aqua regia*. The second fort is a native of the same countries with the first, but is of a larger size. It sends out many weak irregular branches, armed with short, strong, upright thorns. The leaves branch out in the same manner as the first; but the lobes, or small leaves, are oval and entire. The flowers are produced in long spikes like those of the former, but are variegated with red. These plants may be propagated from seeds, which should be sown in small pots filled with light rich earth early in the spring, and plunged in a bed of tanner's bark. Being tender, they require to be always kept in the stove, and to be treated in the same manner as other exotics of that kind.

CÆSALPINUS of Arezzo, professor at Pisa, and afterwards physician to pope Clement VIII. one of the capital writers in botany. See Botany, p. 419, 420.

CÆSAR (Julius), the illustrious Roman general and historian, was of the family of the Julii, who pretended they were descended from Venus by Æneas. The descendants of Ascanius son of Æneas and Creusa, and named Julianus, lived at Alba till that city was ruined by Tullus Hostilius king of Rome, who carried them to Rome, where they flourished. We do not find that they produced more than two branches. The first bore the name of Tullus, the other that of Caesar. The most ancient of the Caesars were those who were in public employments in the 11th year of the first Punic war. After that time we find there was always some of that family who enjoyed public offices in the commonwealth, till the time of Caius Julius Caesar, the subject of this article. He was born at Rome the 12th of the month Quintilis, year of the city 653, and lost his father an. 669. By his valour and eloquence he soon acquired the highest reputation in the field and in the senate. Beloved and respected by his fellow-citizens, he enjoyed successively every magisterial and military honour the republic could bestow consistent with its own free constitution. But at length having subdued Pompey the great rival of his growing power, his boundless ambition effaced the glory of his former actions: for, pursuing his favourite maxim, "that he had rather be the first man in a village than the second in Rome," he procured himself to be chosen perpetual dictator; and, not content with this unconstitutional power, his faction had resolved to raise him to the imperial dignity; when the friends of the civil liberties of the republic rashly assassinated him in the senate-house, where they should only have seized him and brought him to a legal trial for usurpation. By this impolitic impolitic measure they defeated their own purpose, involving the city in consternation and terror, which produced general anarchy, and paved the way to the revolution they wanted to prevent; the monarchical government being absolutely founded on the murder of Julius Caesar. He fell in the 56th year of his age, 43 years before the Christian era. His commentaries contain a history of his principal voyages, battles, and victories. The London edition in 1712, in folio, is preferred.

The detail of Caesar's transactions (so far as is consistent with the limits of this work) being given under the article Rome, we shall here only add a portrait of him as drawn by a philosopher*.

"If, after the lapse of 18 centuries, the truth may be published without offence, a philosopher might, in the following terms, censure Caesar without calumniating him, and applaud him without exciting his blushes.

"Caesar had one predominant passion: it was the love of glory; and he passed 40 years of his life in seeking opportunities to foster and encourage it. His soul, entirely absorbed in ambition, did not open itself to other impulses. He cultivated letters; but he did not love them with enthusiasm, because he had not leisure to become the first orator of Rome. He corrupted the one half of the Roman ladies, but his heart had no concern in the fiery ardours of his senses. In the arms of Cleopatra, he thought of Pompey; and this singular man, who disdained to have a partner in the empire of the world, would have blushed to have been for one instant the slave of a woman.

"We must not imagine, that Caesar was born a warrior, as Sophocles and Milton were born poets. For, if nature had made him a citizen of Sybaris, he would have been the most voluptuous of men. If in our days he had been born in Pennsylvania, he would have been the most inoffensive of quakers, and would not have disturbed the tranquillity of the new world.

"The moderation with which he conducted himself after his victories, has been highly extolled; but in this he showed his penetration, not the goodness of his heart. Is it not obvious, that the display of certain virtues is necessary to put in motion the political machine? It was requisite that he should have the appearance of clemency, if he inclined that Rome should forgive him his victories. But what greatness of mind is there in a generosity which follows on the usurpation of supreme power?

"Nature, while it marked Caesar with a sublime character, gave him also that spirit of perseverance which renders it useful. He had no sooner begun to reflect, than he admired Sylla; hated him, and yet wished to imitate him. At the age of 15, he formed the project of being dictator. It was thus that the president Montesquieu conceived, in his early youth, the idea of the spirit of laws.

"Physical qualities, as well as moral causes, contributed to give strength to his character. Nature, which had made him for command, had given him an air of dignity. He had acquired that soft and insinuating eloquence, which is perfectly suited to seduce vulgar minds, and has a powerful influence on the most cultivated. His love of pleasure was a merit with the fair sex; and women, who even in a republic can draw to them the suffrages and attention of men, have the highest importance in degenerate times. The ladies of his age were charmed with the prospect of having a dictator whom they might subdue by their attractions.

"In vain did the genius of Cato watch for some time to sustain the liberty of his country. It was unequal to contend with that of Caesar. Of what avail were the eloquence, the philosophy, and the virtue of this republican, when opposed by a man who had the address to debauch the wife of every citizen whose interest he meant to engage; who, possessing an enthusiasm for glory, wept, because, at the age of 30, he had not conquered the world like Alexander; and who, with the haughty temper of a despot, was more dextrous to be the first man in a village than the second in Rome.

"Caesar had the good fortune to exist in times of trouble and civil commotions, when the minds of men are put into a ferment; when opportunities of great actions are frequent; when talents are every thing, and those who can only boast of their virtues are nothing. If he had lived a hundred years sooner, he would have been no more than an obscure villain; and, instead of giving laws to the world, would not have been able to produce any confusion in it.

"I will here be bold enough to advance an idea, which may appear paradoxical to those who weakly judge of men from what they achieve, and not from the principle which leads them to act. Nature formed in the same mould Caesar, Mahomet, Cromwell, and Kouli Khan. They all of them united to genius that profound policy which renders it so powerful. They all of them had an evident superiority over those with whom they were surrounded; they were conscious of this superiority, and they made others conscious of it. They were all of them born subjects, and became fortunate usurpers. Had Caesar been placed in Persia, he would have been the founder of a new religion; in London, he would have stabbed his sovereign, or have procured his assassination under the sanction of the laws. He reigned with glory over men whom he had reduced to be slaves; and, under one aspect, he is to be considered as a hero; under another, as a monster. But it would be unfortunate, indeed, for society, if the possession of superior talents gave individuals a right to trouble its repose. Usurpers accordingly have flatterers, but no friends; strangers respect them; their subjects complain and submit; it is in their own families that humanity finds her avengers. Caesar was assassinated by his son, Mahomet was poisoned by his wife, Kouli Khan was massacred by his nephew, and Cromwell only died in his bed because his son Richard was a philosopher.

"Caesar, the tyrant of his country; Caesar, who destroyed the agents of his crimes, if they failed in address; Caesar, in fine, the husband of every wife, and the wife of every husband; has been accounted a great man by the mob of writers. But it is only the philosopher who knows how to mark the barrier between celebrity and greatness. The talents of this singular man, and the good fortune which constantly attended him till the moment of his assassination, have concealed the enormity of his actions."