Of HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. 207 



THE character of TACITUS as an hiflorian, though, upon, 

 the whole, defervedly high j yet cannot, in every refpect, efcapc 

 our cenfure. He pofTefTed powers perfectly adequate to the talk 

 of fpeculating upon the affairs of men, as- becomes a philofo- 

 pher. His fenfibility catched thofe delicate {hades in the hu- 

 man character, of which ordinary obfervers lofe fight amidfl 

 its great outlines. His fancy fuggefled the precife emotions 

 mofl likely to arife in a trying fituation ; led him to adopt that 

 language by which fuch emotions feek vent ; and to feize the 

 circumflances, in every object defcribed, which ftrike the ob- 

 ferver firft, and bring the reft along with them. His judgment 

 difcriminated the genuine from the fpurious, however artfully 

 embellifhed ; and, in the action even of complicated caufes, 

 could affign the exact influence of each in the production of 

 their common effects. But the ardour of his feeling, and the 

 quicknefs of his fancy, fometimes betrayed him into errors. 

 Strong as his judgment was, it did not always watch and con- 

 trol their excefles. The elegance of his ftyle and fentiments, 

 accordingly, degenerates, at times, into affectation, and their 

 animation into extravagance. From the general vigour of his 

 powers, he has thrown beauties into many pafTages which few 

 writers, in any age, have rivaled, and which none have fur- 

 pafled ; but, from an undue balance, occafionally exifting 

 among thefe powers, certain pafTages are overwrought, and 

 deformed by thofe attentions that were meant to improve 

 them. 



SHAKESPEARE and TACITUS are, perhaps, the two writers 

 who leave upon the minds of their readers the ftrongefl impref- 

 fion of the force of their genius. Splendid beauties in each are 

 but eclipfed by faults which would have cancelled the merit 

 of ordinary performers. We mould, indeed, have no flandard 

 for meafuring their excellence, did not the poet fometimes 

 fhock us with his extravagancies, and the hiflorian with his 

 conceits. 



THE 



