94 ESSAY upon the PRINCIPLES 



' AGRICOLA non vitae tantum claritate, fed etiam opportunita- 



' te mortis. Ut perhibent 'qui interfuerunt noviffimis fermo- 



' nibus tuis, conftans et libens fatum excepifti, tanquam pro 



" virili portione innocentiam principi donares. Sed mihi filias- 



" que prseter acerbitatem parentis erepti, auget mceftitiam, quod 



" aflidere valetudini, fovere deficientem, fatiari vultu, complexu, 



" non contigit. ExcepifTemus certe mandata vocefque, quas 



*' penitus animo figeremus. Nofter hie dolor, noftrum vulnus : 



" Nobis tarn longaj abfentiae conditione ante quadriennium 



" amiflus es. Omnia fine dubio, optime parentum, aflidente 



" amantifTima uxore, fuperfuere honori tuo : Paucioribus tamen 



' lacrymis compofitus es, et noviffima in luce defideravere ali- 



" quid oculi tui." 



THE delicacy, joined to the ftrength of painting, which is 

 difcernible in the pafTage now quoted, {hows fufficiently, that 

 though TACITUS employs figures feldom, yet his doing fo arifes 

 from no defect in his powers. The frequent ufe of thefe is, in 

 fact, a ftratagem to which writers of ordinary genius feel 

 themfelves driven. They wifh to borrow a device from art, to 

 conquer a barrier eftabliihed by nature. For a device of this 

 kind, TACITUS had no occafion. The ordinary train of his 

 narration is fufficiently animated to fummon and to retain his 

 reader's attention ; and, when he chufes to leave this train, he 

 knows perfectly how to rife with propriety, and to defcend 

 without falling. 



THE inftances of fine defcription are fo numerous in TACI- 

 TUS, that it is not eafy to determine which ought to be fe- 

 lected. In all his attempts to defcribe, brevity is ftudied. When 

 he defcribes the plague at Rome, in the 1 3th chapter of the 

 1 6th book of his Annals, he employs a few fentences, but 

 each fentence is full of meaning. " Omne mortalium genus 

 " vis peftilentiae depopulabatur, nulla caeli intemperie quae oc- 

 " curreret oculis. Sed domus corporibus exanimis, itinera fu- 

 " neribus complebantur. Non fexus, non aetas periculo vacua. 



" Servitia 



