Of HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. 185 



feem) was owing, not to the precife extent of his abilities 

 alone, but to the fentiments which his jealous fuperiors enter- 

 tained of them.. From the meafure of talents which he pof- 

 feffed, they perceived, that the bufinefs of the public would 

 not be neglected ; and, from the mediocrity of thofe talents, 

 that its tranquillity would not be difturbed. 



OUR author's obfervation upon the fall of SALLUSTIUS 

 CRISPUS is alfo worthy of himfelf. When this perfon was ad- 

 vanced in life, he loft the favour of TIBERIUS, which he had 

 long enjoyed ; and TACITUS hazards a conjecture as to the fate 

 of courtiers in general. The mutability of their fituation is 

 often afcribed to the caprice of their patrons alone; but our 

 author, with much ingenuity, and perhaps equal juftice, afcribes 

 this to a capricious levity both in the patrons and in the ob- 

 jects of their beneficence. " ^Etate provecta fpeciem magis 

 ' in amicitia principis quam vim retinuit. Idque MJECENATI 

 " acciderat, fato potentise raro fempiternse : An fatias capit, aut 

 ' illos cum omnia tribuerunt; aut hos, cum jam nihil reliquum, 

 ' eft quod cupiant *~" 



BUT almoft the whole account of the reign of TIBERIUS con- 

 tains the expofition of a character not more odious than it was 

 fingular. An ordinary writer might have marked fome of its 

 general features, but fuch a writer as TACITUS alone could un- 

 fold its intricacies. In almoft every action, and every fpeech, 

 the tyrant had fomething to conceal. Under the veil of mo- 

 deration, he was ever anxious to undermine the liberties of his 

 people. Flattery, however artfully adminiftered, was, from 

 the fufpicipufnefs of his nature, apt to give him offence ; and, 

 though he was provoked with the fervility of his fubjects, yet 

 he would not permit them to be free. This ftruggle between 

 contending humours, together with its effects upon thofe around 

 him, is beautifully infinuated in the following words. " Acer- 



beque increpuit eos, qui divinas occupationes, ipfumque do- 



a a " minum 



* Ann. lib. 3. cap. 30. 



