Of HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. 197 



different from what is common. The latter term is made by 

 him to denote an article of praife in AGRICOLA as a judge. 

 " Ubi officio fatisfactum, nulla ultra poteftatis perfona. Tri- 

 " ftitiam et arrogantiam et avaritiam exuerat*." CICERO'S de- 

 finition of the vice fixes the precife force of the term. " Ava- 



1 ritia (fays he) eft injuriofa appetitio alienorum." But no 

 affection that is injurious can be meritorious in any perfon, far 

 lefs in a judge ; and the moft rigid affertor of public rights 

 cannot, in juftice, invade thofe of individuals. Both the cha- 

 racter and the object, then, of this appetitio, employed by CI- 

 CERO in the definition of avaritia, are reverfed by TACITUS. 

 That defire which he applauds muft have been more than in- 

 nocent ; and its objects muft have been the property of that 

 community in behalf of which AGRICOLA acted as a judge. 



THE ufe made by our author of the adjective avarus corre- 

 fponds entirely with the xife now ftated of the abftract noun 

 avaritia. He tells us of GALBA, that he was, " Pecunias ali- 



( enae non appetens, fuse parcus, publicae avarus f." The term 

 avarus, in this acceptation, exprefles all that infatiable thirft for 

 pofleflion, in behalf of the public, which the avaritious have 

 for themfelves. It denotes an inflexible keennefs in GALBA to 

 fupport every claim of the ftate he governed, in fpite of thofe 

 temptations to which the virtue of other emperors had yielded. 

 THE word gnarus^ which is properly applicable to the perfon 

 who knows, TACITUS applies to the thing known. " Gnarum 

 " id TIBERIO fuit ." Again, in the 4jth chapter of the 12th 

 book of the Annals, he fays, " Nihil tarn ignarum barbaris 

 " quam machinamenta et aftus oppugnationum j at nobis ea 

 " pars militiae maxime gnara eft." SALLUST had applied the 



term ignarus to the thing unknown, as well as to the perfon 



ignorant ; as, when he fays, " Mare magnum et ignara lingua 



" commercia 



* De vita AGRIC. cap. 9. f Hift. lib. i. cap. 49.. 



J Ann. lib. 3. cap. 6.. 



