I
know not how it is, but their commerce with the ancients appears to
me to produce, in those who constantly practise it, a steadying and
composing effect upon the judgment, not of literary works only, but of
men and events in general.
know not how it is, but their commerce with the ancients appears to
me to produce, in those who constantly practise it, a steadying and
composing effect upon the judgment, not of literary works only, but of
men and events in general.
Tacitus
In "The Life of Agricola," I would mention the simplicity of the
treatment and the excellence of the taste. Tacitus does not recite the
whole of Roman history, nor assemble all the worthies out of Plutarch.
Agricola is not compared to the pyramids, to the Flavian circus, nor to
any works of art and literature: these flights of imagination were
not known to the Ancients; but in a learned modern, I have seen Dante
compared to Wagner's operas, to the Parthenon and St. Peter's, and to
Justinian's code. The sanctities of private life are not violated; yet
we know everything, that it is decent to know, about Agricola. Lord
Coleridge has given a beautiful rendering of the closing passages of
"The Agricola," in his account of Mr. Matthew Arnold: these elegant
papers are not only models of good English; but are conspicuous,
among recent obituary notices, for their fine taste and their becoming
reticence. From the excesses of modern biographers, Tacitus was in
little danger; thanks to his Roman sense, and to the qualities of the
Roman Language. "Economy," says Mr. Symonds, "is exhibited in every
element of this athletic tongue. Like a naked gladiator all bone and
muscle, it relies upon bare sinewy strength. " That author speaks of "the
austere and masculine virtues of Latin, the sincerity and brevity of
Roman speech;" and Tacitus is, beyond any doubt, the strongest, the
austerest, the most pregnant of all the Romans. "Sanity," says Mr.
Matthew Arnold, in conclusion, "that is the great virtue of the ancient
literature; the want of that is the great defect of the modern, in
spite of all its variety and power. " "It is impossible to read the great
ancients, without losing something of our caprice and eccentricity.
I
know not how it is, but their commerce with the ancients appears to
me to produce, in those who constantly practise it, a steadying and
composing effect upon the judgment, not of literary works only, but of
men and events in general. They are like persons who have had a very
weighty and impressive experience; they are more truly than others under
the empire of facts, and more independent of the language current among
those with whom they live. "
It has been told of Cardinal Newman, that he never liked to pass
a single day, without rendering an English sentence into Latin. To
converse with the Roman authors, to handle their precise and sparing
language, is, I can well believe it, a most wholesome discipline;
and the most efficient remedy against those faults of diffuseness, of
obscurity, and of excess, which are only too common among the writers
of our day. It may have been to this practice, that Cardinal Newman owed
something of his clearness, and of his exquisite simplicity: and for
his style, he should be idolised by every one who has a taste for
literature. I have said many things in praise of the ancient authors: it
pleases me, as I finish, to offer my humble tribute to an author who is
quite our own; to one, who in all his writings has bequeathed us perfect
models of chaste, of lucid, and of melodious prose.
NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD: _September_ 15, 1890.
THE FIRST SIX BOOKS OF THE ANNALS OF TACITUS:
BEING AN HISTORY OF THE EMPEROR TIBERIUS
THE ANNALS OF TACITUS
BOOK I
A. D. 14 AND 15.
Kings were the original Magistrates of Rome: Lucius Brutus founded
Liberty and the Consulship: Dictators were chosen occasionally, and used
only in pressing exigencies. Little more than two years prevailed the
supreme power of the Decemvirate, and the consular jurisdiction of the
military Tribunes not very many. The domination of Cinna was but short,
that of Sylla not long. The authority of Pompey and Crassus was quickly
swallowed up in Caesar; that of Lepidus and Anthony in Augustus. The
Commonwealth, then long distressed and exhausted by the rage of her
civil dissensions, fell easily into his hands, and over her he assumed
a sovereign dominion; yet softened with a venerable name, that of Prince
or Chief of the Senate. But the several revolutions in the ancient
free state of Rome, and all her happy or disastrous events, are already
recorded by writers of signal renown.
