Of HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. 195 



countrymen, TACITUS was often eminently fuccefsful. Thus, 

 in telling us, that AGRIPPINA was able to give the empire to 

 her fon CLAUDIUS, but was unable to fubmit to his fovereignty, 

 he makes one word denote both the power and the abfence of 

 it. " Truci contra ac minaci AGRIPPINA, quse filio dare im- 

 ' perium, tolerare imperitantem nequibat *." The verb nequi- 

 bat is equally connected with the two infinitives dare and tole- 

 rare ; but it muft be decompounded, before it is applied to the 

 firfl of them, fo as to bring forth the hiflorian's meaning. 



FROM the charge of affectation and conceit, in certain in- 

 ftances, then, our author cannot be freed. It is the prerogative 

 of criticifm to cenfure without fear, to defpife the authority of 

 names, and to decide upon principle. TACITUS, perhaps, ex- 

 pected, that the luftre of his uncommon accomplishments would 

 deflroy the ridicule that is aimed at common defects ; that even 

 the luxuriant play of his genius would extort that refpeCt which 

 is due to its mofh correct productions. 



MANY of the impurities that occur in the flyle of TACITUS 

 are to be imputed to the times in which he lived, and not to 

 any careleflnefs, or to any ignorance of his. The contempora- 

 ries of CICERO himfelf fometimes attacked that orator's flyle. 

 From jealoufy of his ^reputation, perhaps, they were difpofed 

 to reject even terms, " grseco fonte cadentia et parce detorta." 

 In judging of the legitimacy of expreffion in a dead language, 

 the moft ignorant are often the moil prefumptuous. The in- 

 fluence of analogy is held to be more extenfive than it is ; and 

 a high degree of uniformity is fuppofed to exift in a fubject of 

 all others the moft eccentric. TACITUS, then, may have had 

 authorities for thofe expreffions which we hold to be the moft 

 irregular. From the boldnefs and originality of his views, at 

 the fame time, we may fuppofe, that he would be apt to bend 

 the language of his country to his own conceptions, and to fpurn 

 at the fetters of ftrict grammatical authority. 



b b 2 TACITUS, 



* Ann. lib. 12. cap. 64. 



