30 VOLTAIRE. 



the spirited, the picturesque of the ancient historian, 

 really a finer poet than he who would needs drama- 

 tise the story into prose. The battle so exquisitely 

 painted by Sallust could not indeed be rendered on 

 the stage, but something of the noble speech that 

 preceded might have been given. Then how tamely 

 does Csesar, in recounting the fight, render the " Memor 

 generis atque pristinse dignitatis, in confertissirnos 

 hostes incurrit," and the sad and striking scene dis- 

 played after the battle, when " quisque quern pugnando 

 locum ceperat eum amissa anima corpore tegebat;" 

 but Catiline, on the contrary, was found " longe a suis 

 inter hostium cadavera, paululum etiam spirans, fero- 

 ciamque animi quam habuerat vivus in voltu reti- 

 nens."* This is far from the greatest failure of 

 Voltaire, but it is a failure, and a failure by de- 

 parting from the admirable simplicity of the original. 



" Catiline terrible au milieu du carnage, 

 Entoure d'ennemis immoles a sa rage, 

 Sanglant, couvert de traits, et combattant toujours, 

 Dans nos rangs eclaires a termine ses jours. 

 Sur des morts entasses I'effroi de Rome expire : 

 Romain, je le condamne ; et soldat, je 1'admire." 



It may here be observed that the admirable trait of 

 each soldier falling where he fought, but the terrible 

 chief far apart from all his men, because in advance of 

 them all, being first left out, the extraordinary effect of 

 paululum etiam spirans where he had fallen, and the 

 ferociam animi voltu retinens, are equally abandoned. 



* One never can read this great masterpiece of narrative without 

 recollecting Quinctilian's phrase, " Salustii immortalem velocitatem." 



