The sense of personal dignity is here combined with extreme courtesy and respect, and the most flattering appeals to the old man’s wellknown sentiments, his love of liberty, his love of rectitude, and his devoted attachment to Marcia, are interwoven with irresistible art; but though the resentment of Cato at the approach of the strangers is thus appeased, and he is persuaded to regard them with as much favor as the severity of his character permits, yet he will not have them think that his consent to their proceeding has been obtained by adulation, but simply by the assertion of power vouchsafed to them from on high⁠— Ma se donna del Ciel ti muove e regge, Come tu di’, non c’ è mestier lusinga: Bastiti ben, che per lei mi richegge. In this also the consistency of Cato’s character is maintained; he is sensible of the flattery, but disowns its influence.” ↩