206 ESS AT upon the PRINCIPLES 



TACITUS, alfo, often imitates SALLUST, in adopting ufes of 

 terms, and modes of conftruction, that are properly Greek. 

 Thus, " Memoriae Druli eadem quse in Germanicum decer- 

 nuntur, plerifque additis ut ferme amat poflerior adulatio *." 

 As the Greek verb ?A often denotes ordinary and natural oc- 

 currence in certain cafes, fo does the Latin verb amo here. 



St re xtfTopix /Baffin f. 



Amatque convlcia loqu't. 



So alfo, " O7f cv TOK ToisToif Q^it." The attachment to a fpe- 

 cified adion, fuggefted by the two verbs in the different lan- 

 guages, is made to denote its frequency even among inanimate 

 objects. TACITUS alfo fupprefTes the governing prepofition, after 

 the manner of the Greeks. Thus, as they faid, " Pupws von^t*," 

 for " p&>juaio; xr rw irur^Sx ;" fo he frequently adopts fuch po- 

 etical expreffions as, " Clari genus J," " Animum vultumque 

 " converfi |j." 



FROM the view now taken of the ftyle of TACITUS, it mould 

 feem, that it will not bear a comparifon with that of the wri- 

 ters during the reign of AUGUSTUS. The age of high claffical 

 purity was, in his days, pad ; and, of courfe, the grammati- 

 cal ftandard eftablimed by practice had altered. As the firft 

 wifh of our author mull have been to pleafe his contempora- 

 ries, fo he would naturally adopt thofe modes of expreflion that 

 were mod agreeable to them ; and we cannot fuppofe him able, 

 though he had been difpofed, to refift that progrefs towards 

 corruption which had already commenced. The impurities of 

 his ftyle, at the fame time, can never cancel the dignity of his 

 fentiment. In the one, we fee the Roman language, in fome 

 degree, corrupted ; but, in the other, we fee human reafon pro- 

 portionably improved. 



THE 



* Ann. lib. 4. cap. 9. )- HESIOD. Ep. 5. 588. 



t Anp. lib. 6. cap. 9. [j Hift. lib. i. cap. 85. 



