No More Learning

He spared
no pains to do all the justice in his power to one of the greatest
writers of antiquity; but whether he has toiled with fruitless
industry, or has in any degree succeeded, must be left to the
judgement of others.

He is now at the end of his labours, and ready, after the example of
Montesquieu, to cry out with the voyager in Virgil, _Italiam!
Italian! _ But whether he is to land on a peaceful shore; whether the
men who delight in a wreck, are to rush upon him with hostile pens,
which in their hands are pitch-forks; whether his cargo is to be
condemned, and he himself to be wounded, maimed, and lacerated; a
little time will discover. Such critics will act as their nature
prompts them. Should they _cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war_,
it may be said,

Quod genus hoc hominum, quæve hunc tam barbara morem
Permittit patria? Hospitio prohibemur arenæ;
Bella cient, primâque vetant consistere terrâ.

This, they may say, is anticipating complaint; but, in the worst that
can happen, it is the only complaint this writer will ever make, and
the only answer they will ever receive from his pen.

It is from a very different quarter that the translator of Tacitus
waits for solid criticism. The men, as Pliny observes, who read with
malignity, are not the only judges. _Neque enim soli judicant, qui
malignè legunt. _ The scholar will see defects, but he will pronounce
with temper: he will know the difficulty, and, in some cases, perhaps
the impossibility, of giving in our language the sentiments of Tacitus
with the precision and energy of the original; and, upon the whole, he
will acknowledge that an attempt to make a considerable addition to
English literature, carries with it a plea of some merit. While the
French could boast of having many valuable translations of Tacitus,
and their most eminent authors were still exerting themselves, with
emulation, to improve upon their predecessors, the present writer saw,
with regret, that this country had not so much as one translation
which could be read, without disgust, by any person acquainted with
the idiom and structure of our language. To supply the deficiency has
been the ambition of the translator. He persevered with ardour; but,
his work being finished, ardour subsides, and doubt and anxiety take
their turn.
Whatever the event may be, the conscious pleasure of
having employed his time in a fair endeavour will remain with him.
For the rest, he submits his labours to the public; and, at that
tribunal, neither flushed with hope, nor depressed by fear, he is
prepared, with due acquiescence, to receive a decision, which, from
his own experience on former occasions, he has reason to persuade
himself will be founded in truth and candour.




GEOGRAPHICAL TABLE:

OR,

INDEX OF THE NAMES OF PLACES, RIVERS, &c. MENTIONED IN THESE VOLUMES.


A.

ACHAIA, often taken for part of Peloponnesus, but in Tacitus generally
for all Greece.

ACTIUM, a promontory of Epirus, now called the _Cape of Tigolo_,
famous for the victory of Augustus over M. Antony.

ADDUA, a river rising in the country of the _Grisons_, and in its
course separating Milan from the territory of the Venetians, till it
falls into the Po, about six miles to the west of Cremona. It is now
called the _Adda_.

ADIABENE, a district of Assyria, so called from the river Adiaba;
_Adiabeni_, the people.

ADRANA, now the _Eder_; a river that flows near _Waldeck_, in the
landgravate of _Hesse_, and discharges itself into the _Weser_.

ADRIATIC, now the gulf of Venice.

ADRUMETUM, a Phœnician colony in Africa, about seventeen miles from
Leptis Minor.

ÆDUI, a people of Ancient Gaul, near what is now called _Autun_, in
Lower Burgundy.

ÆGEÆ, a maritime town of Cilicia; now _Aias Kala_.