Nugae literariae: prose and verse

181쪽

deep which Was essentiat to Grecian climate, and the emblemos Grecian Deedom. The Sea, the Sea, ' Was the ecStatic Shout.

the clattering hoose of his fleed, when he sies froin the rear and froin the plain, to learn the cause of that sudden tumuli and of

mirror Would lie in stitvers, euch contemptibly smali, ali patri- fully distorting. The patient historian, therefore, enlarges his vlew, into his planisphere he involies the deepest past of time, and largest stretch of earlh,-and though one particular depart-ment of history may be ali upon Which he formalty descanis,

this latitudo fheds upon that particular depariment a Comprehensive interest. And there is by no means a Scarcity of writers

182쪽

phering the inscriptions, - causing to bear upon iis important questions the lights of just comparison and found philology. Niobulir has furnishod many tributes to this stock of knowledge. He has proceeded in a certain, though most unpretend-ing, Way. Ηe has brought together authors of litile note, Whose WorkS are not eXtant, Who are only quoted by the grammarians, such as Festus and Nonius, in the fixili and severith century of Rome. These fame are quoted also by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and somelimes by Plutarch and Livy. The astuto German has even resorted io Aristolle, and other Greek writers Wholiave never referred to Rome. From these fources he has draWnsuch curious, and in many instances, such strii ing materiais, that the seven hills seem to rise once more Dom an inundation offabie. I am not convinced of ali he says, nor alia I competent todecide Upon many of the problems he discusses, yet stili it has appeared to me that he has fixed a happy and philosophic mid-way between the rectiles8 rejection of this history by some, and

iis credulous admission by others. He setiles accounts belWeen

Rome and her rivals very fairly. For eXample, Porsenna, Lingos Etruria, is generalty imagined to have come oss worsi in his opposition to the Roman arms γ but the historical critic shows, that the conditions of peuce Were absolutely to his advantage, that he gained an accession of territory,-Dom the immediate

diminution of the Roman tribes Dom thirsy to twenty. Another specimen of his quick-Sighted faculty may be added. Tarquin, tho last of tho name, is alleged to have reigned tWenty-sive years. Brutus is represented to have been quite a child at the boginning of this reign. Yet at the close of it, he is not only a fallier, but his sons are old enough to join in a conspiracy against

the state. The story confutes itself. Long ago as Suetonius, tho head os Camillus was thinned of some of iis most clustering laureis. But there Were, I suspect, sar more Written histories of ancient Rome than that of Fabius. Livy only sayS, per-

183쪽

raroe per eadem tempora literae.' Mucii has been made of the custom of driving the nail into the right fide of the Temple of Iupiter. And it has been askod with a sneer, What reliance can be placed upon the history of a peopte Who had no bellerWay, than this rudest os ali, of rechoning time 8 ΝοW Livy, in the third chapter of the severith book, gives quite a disserent Version. It Was done, according to the advice of thoold men, to avert a plague. The custom Was perpetianted; and tho use of it to marti the progress of time Was quite acridental. As a dictator Was appotnted, it gave a solemnity to thonotation. It could not be necessary, for the law requiring it is spolien of by the historian in this manner : Lex vetusta est priscis literis, verbisque scripta.' Νiebutir dotabiless attacks the mythos of the earliest ages of that peopte With great Deedomand unceremoniousness. He is unable to belleve in the fosto maternity and wet-nurse tenderness of the Wolf to the haploss

It is as an early epic Where ali is marvellous. It Was Dot to besupposed that they Who transcribed it Would at once impeach it. Livy somelimes gives an allegorical eXplanation. At Other times, he speaks of common repori and impression. He leaves muchio his reader, admitting that men in his titiis 110ither likod it tobo boliouod that tho gods exhibited prodigies, nor that theyshould find a place in public annals. He, With others, had tomino the best os a romaunt. Plutarch, When he totaches on any improbability, has a ready apology: This tale may appear dramatio and like a ballad-figment, but We must not thereseredisbeliove it, seeing What poWer Fortune has over evenis, and considering that the Roman assairs Would never have reachedsucti an elevation is they had not a divine origin, and is nothinggreat and contrary to human experience had happened. 'No sinali sitare of the suspicion entertained of tho Roman

184쪽

history is raised on iis similarity to tho Grocian. There is atreatise extant, attributed to Plutarin, though his authorshipos it is much disputed, Περι ΙΠαραλληλων Ελληνικων και Ρωμαικων.

I find it, hoWovor, in my Franksori folio. It is evident that hedoes not write With any vieW to est listi a common origin ofthese parallel evenis, but to prove their respective credibility. And ali nations can exhibit deeds of Very cloSe resemblance,-deeds of daring, of patriotism, and of Virtuo. Human natureis, the fame, and Will in the most opposite circumstances be thesame in iis developinent. To this may be added, that rivalryin one nation Will osten Vie With the greatness of another. Thus the paralleis ure produced. A very important question, indeed, arises as to the regardwe should have to praeternatural evenis, those os omens, Sooth- sayings, and What are called prodigie8. But We, Surely, arenot bound to give credit to them, is the testifier does notbelleve them. We are not bound to give credit to them, is

introduced for no purpose correspondently Solemn. We are not

occurred in periods of unauthentic history. There is litile of practical dissculty in the separation os truth Dona such table,- the mirid acquires a faci, as the lapidary at orace deiecis thedis ronco belween the diu mond and the mimic-paste,-or as the jurisconsuli, by a sirst perception, disceriis the sympionis of innocence and gulit.

faci, it is probabie, Would be given to a close analysis. A seWgratias of gold Would adhere to the crucible. The principalerror of What he calis the Roman poem is the samo with that ofmost early histories, Where Paganism is the religio . A descentis fought froin the gods. Aster that ambition, it is not lihelythat public writers Will greatly prevaricate with their oWn impression of things. Adheretice to truth is alWays more Probabio than wilsul falsification os it. It is always more lihelythat men Will repori a faci right than wantonly distori it. A

185쪽

departure Dona truth, a misrepresentation os fact, ure a turning om the natural bias. There mu st be sonae sinister motive tothwart this impulse of the minit. A lie is a violence on Our-selves for sonae supposed enit, Which We thinii sincerity could not accomplisti: it cannot be gratuitous, fave when habit has corrupted the mirad into the imbecillty which may not heiacesortheven talio the distinctiora. It is satisfactory to find that the great historians arebecoming more and more alloWedly Worthy of credit, With theextension of general knOWledge, and the scrutiny of their particular cluinis. In no instance is this moro evident than in thecase of the Father of History. Herodotus stands more highlynow in every region of the world of letters, than ho over did in his own country. The ancients dissided in him, hecause theycould not examine for thenaseives that immense labour Whicli ho undertook sor the sake os perfeci truth. Μodern experience has placed him beyonil suspicion. Ηe Was as greatly in adVanceos ali historians, as Bacon was of ali philosophers. Ηe belongedio a class of intellect to Which only posterity Was ever knoWn todo justice. Remembering that, in his time, it Was not possibi ethat he should bo exempt Dom every mythological impreSSion, which would bo to make him irreligious,-remembering that, when he spealis of Ovents which he had not tested by observation, he commonly remarkS, aS they say,' so it is reported, - remembering his devoted care to the examination os everything whicli lis prosesses to have fallen under his observation ,-he stands upon a height as litile to be approached by competition as assailed by malico i Bright is the halo of his glory, sor it has boon kindling through ages lΙn perusing such historians as Herodotus, Thucydides, and

Xenophon, ot to sorget Tacitus, a neW means of conviction

admits it, on the fide of justice and Deedom. This arguos in favour of their morat integrity, and through that, of their his-

186쪽

torie crodibility. Sallust is obliged to talio the part of right,

but his satire against vice has not half the energy of virtve. His own enormities of private life destroyed the honesty and

grace of his animadversion8.-Ι take leave here to recommendLarcher's Νotes to HerodotuS. The exceptions taken to the weight of historio evidelice in generat, and to specific portions miXed up in most historic compositions, shali here receive a momentary remat h. It is contended that testimony only is to be received, When it accoriis with the course of nature and the probability of things. Theseconstitute eo perien e. Is the matter of the testimony contradictemperience, it is contended, that it must be refused. One view,however, is sussicient to silence What is thus contended. Whatis emperien e 8 The long succession of evenis. It cannot meanea perien e in a personat sense. Then hoW is that experienco

testimony is antecedent, personalty considered, to our litile eXperience. The informations of our senses we have to correct by the testimony of others, and infant education is one necessarydependerice tipon our disposition to belleve What others mahe known to tis. -Yet historic compositions, particularly those

whicli are heroic, do miX up With them portions whicli nothingcan authenticate. Hannibal froin the Alps, Galcacus froni tho Gramplans, Spolie according to Livy and Tacitus more than a round ianvarnished tale.' Stenography Was, to our best knowledge, at that time an ari in no persection: Reporters hadno gallery there. These speeches, though they might havo agenerat rudiment of truth, Were fabrications. They could not, oin the necessity of the case, decesVe the reader. They were rogarded as decorative introductions. They were a Lind of

187쪽

country of Phrygia, to dispute the ground -Work of the story. It is repea tedly quoted by annalist, topographer, tragedian, and bard. It is cited as an assured thing. Ingenious men have ut intervias dented ii, but tho generat belles has alWays remainedunimpatred. The deeds are stamped on that Wondrous Scene. Xerxes visited ii as real, and Alexander Worshipped at what hoboliouod lo bo his favourito hortas grave. Scamander stili flows, Simoeis and Xanthus aro stili iis tributaries. The tumuli ofAchilles, Max, Patrocius, stili heave themselves Dom theground . Sigoeum stili braves the sea, and Ida the 8ky. Homerlived shortly after tho Trojan War,-ho is it that his poenashould be adapted to every particular and variation of the

Trojan plain, is that Were not iis scene, and is it were itselfimaginary 8 But the most sceptical cannot Wholly deny it. Bryant soli that something must be allowed of iis ouilino, hethere re placed it in Egypt. Μorriti, in his Vindication of

mache with her Astyanax, beWildered with gries and Dar. Such a power of adaptation must have desed any man. It was not for him as it Was allowed io AEneas, to found the Lingdomos Acesta, marhing iis boundaries by a Plough-share, distri

188쪽

It would bo as reasonable to deny the existence of Chartemagne, and the reality of Godhey, because Ariosto and Tasso have sung them. Indeed Homer Was considered by his countrymennot only authentic, but so absolute an authority, that when the Athenians and Μegarensians claimed the possession of Salamis, and the dispute Was referred to the Assembly of Sparta, Solon argued tho litis of the Athenians to it froni the samoias catalogue os the ships in the second book of the Iliad :

It is Woli argued by Μorriti that the opposite hypothosis annihilatos the wholo of the early history of Greece. Besore this, we are acquainted with most of the heroes, theirbirili, descent, and intermarriages. Thus Agamemnon and Menelaus marry tWo siSters, the daughters of Tyndarus, andriale over Μycenae and Sparta. UlySSes marries Penelope, thedaughter of Icarius ; and traditionS, and monuments relative tothese facis, and a hundred similar to them, Were found in thocountry of Sparta, Ithaca, and Argolis. We know, independent of the siege, the private history of ali the great families of Greeco during this time; many of these are stightly alluded to

latod without assecting the credibility of the whole of histo , and the united testimony of the ancient Worid. 'The ex- surdo method might be resorted to in meeting the dogged obstinacy of many in their disbelies of history. Every proof they can turn aside. Ait is invention, ali is crasti Sup-

pose that men averred that there WaS a State-document, called

Μagna Charta. HOW easily might that be disputed on thocommon principies of historical scepticism. We may throw theassertions of iis defenders and impugners into dialogue, and they shali be known as A. and B.

189쪽

A. You cannot be the sirst to doubi the existence and laci of that great sotilement of national righis and liberties. B. You are carried aWay by a Vulgar delusion.

190쪽

A. That was an iniquitous departure froni this Charier, and the contrast proved iis iniquity. B. Hume has taught me that the evidelice of testimonydiminishos in proportion to a faci being unusual: noW it seemsto me very unusual that a Ling Should sit out of doors, and giveto nudat oppressors of his peopte an inheritance of Deedom. He moreover says, that We Should be very slow in belloving any repori Whicli faVoUrS the passion of the reporter, Whetherit magnifies his country, his family, or himself but this repori does magni0 national Vanity,-the antiquarian, Who gaVeout that he had found the original, magnis od his family and