Cicero’s comprehensive treatise on the Commonwealth known as De Republica is a work whose direct and practical purpose was to arouse Roman citizens to the dangers which then threatened destruction to the liberties of their country. In appealing to his countrymen "to rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things," the inspired patriot did not hesitate to promise that all patriotic and philanthropic statesmen should not only be rewarded on earth by the approval of their own consciences and the applause of all good citizens, but by immortal glory in a realm beyond the grave.

Classical Rhetoric in English, 1650 - 1800 traces the development of British rhetorical culture through English translations of selected works by Plato, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Cicero, Seneca, Quintilian, Tacitus, and Longinus, along with a glossary of English rhetorical vocabulary.