104 On the ANCIENT FORM 



the hiftorian of borrowing affiftance from the graces of elo- 

 quence ; imparts fpirit to details, otherwife unengaging ; and 

 gives an interefting difplay of character ; why ihould it be 

 given up by the moderns ? Do they acknowledge themfelves 

 more deflitute of fancy, fenfibility, and powers of eloquent 

 diction than SALLUST or TACITUS? Other reafons have been af- 

 figned, and they deferve to be examined. 



TRUTH," it may be faid, " is the foundation of hiftory. 

 An hiftorian muft give a faithful account of facts, elfe he is 

 no hiftorian ; he is a novelift, a teller of tales, a romance- 

 writer, and that of the worft kind ; for he would impofe upon 

 us as actual truth, what is even deftitute of probability. Now, 

 as it is not probable, that the fpeeches afcribed by ancient hi- 

 ftorians, to the great perfons of whom they write, were ever 

 delivered by them in the very form their hiftorians have given 

 them, they are guilty of deviation from truth and incur the 

 cenfure we have expreffed. Though G&SAR and CATO might 

 have delivered fuch orations as SALLUST has afcribed to them, 

 it is not very likely that GALGACUS and CORIOLANUS Ihould 

 have delivered the long fpeeches attributed to them by TA- 

 CITUS and DIONYSIUS. The Romans and Caledonians, at the 

 period when thefe men appeared, were illiterate and unim- 

 proved. The practice feems to have arifen among the loqua- 

 cious Greeks, and to have been copied by the imitative Romans. 

 It is, as was mentioned, a manifeft violation of truth ; and 

 if an hiftorian, in any cafe whatfoever, appears regardlefs of 

 veracity, how can we depend upon him on other occafions ? 

 He impairs his own credit, and the whole. of his evidence be- 

 comes fufpected. Therefore, according to this view of the 

 matter, the felf-denial of modern hiftorians. does them great 

 honour. Rather than trefpafs againft the truth, and weaken 

 the force of their evidence in matters fo highly important, as 

 the knowledge of pad events, they deny themfelves all the or- 

 naments they might derive from the difplay of eloquence ; 



and, 



