REMARKS ON TACITUS.

FIRST PUBLISHED

IN THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW FOR MARCH 1818,

AS AN ARTICLE UPON THE EDITION OF TACITUS,

BY MESSRS. WELLS AND LILLY.

AN American edition of the works of Tacitus has, we think, a particular claim to the notice and patronage of all those, who profess to be the well wishers of our rising literature. We do not say this from a belief in any imagined superiority of the ancients over the moderns in genius or taste. We are willing to admit, that Latin and Greek are not every thing, nor even the principal thing; nay more, that there are many productions of the ancients, which are read, not for their intrinsic merit, but merely as necessary appendages to the character of a scholar. Non tantam habent speciem, quantam religionem;' and it is of little consequence, perhaps, how soon they lose even this. Nor do we place very high on the scale of mental worth those learned laborers, who have spent their lives, in settling disputed readings, or explaining doubtful passages, in a Greek or Roman classic. It is an employment, which has somewhat of the semblance of intellectual, without tasking the thoughts to that

severe work of inventing and combining, which so wears upon the nerves and exhausts the spirits.

After concessions so liberal, we may surely be permitted to express the opinion, that there are many and great advantages, to be derived from the study of the classics. It must be allowed, that even the commentators have not been without their use; they have often thrown much light upon history, as well as upon their author; and afforded great facilities to those, who would seek, with higher views, what is really valuable in the productions of Greece and Rome. At that early period of life, when the languages of these nations are usually learned, their study affords a useful discipline to the mind, which could not, perhaps, at that age, be so well derived from any other source. In discovering the meaning of a passage, there is not only a vigorous exercise of the powers of invention and comprehension; but in that grammatical analysis of each sentence, which is necessary for this purpose, a constant process of reasoning is carried on. By translation, a youth, while he acquires that copiousness of expression, so much insisted on by Quintilian, forms, at the same time, the habit of nicely discriminating the import of words, and perceiving their minutest shades of difference, and this much more from the dead, than living languages; because

their idiom and modes of combination vary more from our own. The importance of the early formation of this habit will be obvious to those, who consider, that language is not only the vehicle of our thoughts, when we impart them to others, but the very body, in which they appear to ourselves. We think in propositions, and in proportion to the propriety and definiteness of our words, will be those of our ideas. It is true, that during the period we have mentioned, many facts in geography, civil and even natural history, might be stored in the memory. But, not to mention that, especially with the children of the wealthy, there is time enough for all these; we hold it to be a maxim, that discipline, rather than knowledge, should be the object of education. We do not consider that youth as best taught, who has read or knows the most, but him, who carries into the world an understanding, formed successfully to grapple with whatever subject may be proposed, and most able, in whatever situation he may be placed, to think and act with sagacity, with truth and effect. The languages of the classics, once acquired, open to the maturer taste and judgment all the stores of ancient wisdom, poetry, and eloquence. Nor is it a slight knowledge of the character and manners of a people, their habits of thinking and feeling, their

progress in philosophy and morals, which may be obtained from the mere vocabulary and peculiar modes of expression, prevalent among them. To be convinced of this, we have but to recollect, how many ideas in intellectual and moral science, and even more, in the relations, duties, and endearments of domestic life, are, with their appropriate terms, common among us, which cannot be expressed in the language of the Romans.

But we have said enough to intimate to our readers, which was all we intended, with what aim, and to what extent, we think these studies should be pursued. It is time that we proceed to some remarks upon the style and character of the author before us.

The style of Tacitus we should not propose as a model for imitation; it has something perhaps of that affectation, into which the Latin writers, after the Augustan age, generally fell. Often abrupt and involved, and sometimes so elliptical, as to be obscure, it wants that natural ease and simplicity of construction, which we admire in Cicero and Livy. Sentences perhaps are not unfrequent, in which to readers, principally conversant with the writers of the era, we have mentioned, even the grammar may seem strained. But the style of Tacitus, although it wants simplicity of structure, has all that sim

plicity, which depends upon the absence, of whatever is feeble, unmeaning, or unnecessary. He has, it is true, no formal figures, or studied comparisons; for this his feelings were too rapid; but he abounds in metaphors, the most bold and forcible. All inanimate nature beneath his touch lives and acts; 'terra,' says he 'horrida sylvis, paludibus fœda.' He seizes from resemblance every epithet, which can increase the depth and energy of his expressions; choosing for his purpose even more frequently anal-ogies of effect, than of appearance; and thus employing those, which act not only indirectly through the imagination, but immediately upon the heart. There is in his style a vigor, which depends even more upon selection than combination; and thus he often concentrates in a single word or phrase an import, which no translation can convey. His very ellipses, when habit has accustomed us to their use, bring upon the mind a condensation of meaning, which fills, at once, all our powers of conception.

But it is not for his style, that we principally admire this author; his profound views of the human heart, his just development of the principles of action, his delicate touches of nature, his love of liberty and independence, and above all, the moral sensibility, which mingles, and incorporates