this relation, as well as of hiftory in general, according to Cicero's judicious remark, confifts in the furprizing variety which runs through the whole, and the different emotions of fear, anxiety, hope, joy, defpair, and grief occafioned by the fudden alterations, and unexpected viciffitudes, which rouze the atten tion by an agreeable furprize, keep the reader in a kind of fufpenfe, and give him incredible pleasure even from that uncertainty, efpecially where the narration concludes with an affecting and fingular event. It will be easy to apply these principles to every thing that follows. k 6. Forte integer fuit; ut univerfis folum nequaquàm par, fic adverfus fingulos ferox. Ergo, ut fegregaret pugnam eorum, capeffit fugam, ita ratus fecuturos, ut quemque vulnere affectum corpus fineret. 7. Jam aliquantum fpacii ex eo loco, ubi pugnatum eft, aufugerat, cum refpiciens videt magnis intervallis fequentes: unum haud procul abeffe. In eum magno impetu redit. Et, dum Albanus exercitus inclamat Curiatiis ut opem ferant fratri, jam Horatius cafo bofte victor fecundam pugnam petebat. m 8. Tum clamore, qualis ex infperato faventium foTet, Multum cafus noftri tibi varietatem in fcribendo fuppeditabunt, plenam cujufdam voluptatis, quæ vehementer animos hominum in legendo fcripto retinere poffit: nihil eft enim aptius ad delectationem lectoris, quam temporum varietates fortunæque viciffitudines. .... Ancipites variique cafus habent admirationem, lætitiam, moleftiam, fpem, timorem. Si verò exitu notabili concluduntur, expletur animus jucundiffimæ lectionis voluptate. Cic. Ep. 12. 1. 5. ad famil. 6. Happily, he was not wounded: thus being too weak against three, though fuperior to any one of them fingle, he had recourfe to a tratagem, in which he fucceeded. In order to divide his adverfaries, he fled, being perfuaded they would follow him with more or less expedition, as their ftrength, after fo much lofs of blood, would permit. 17. Having fled a confiderable fpace from the fpot where they had fought, he looked back and faw the Curiatii pursuing him at great diftances from each other, and one of them very near; upon which he turned and charged him with all his force, and, while the Alban army were crying out to his brothers to fuccour him, Horatius, who had already flain the first enemy, runs to a fecond victory." m'g. The Romans then encourage their champion with great fhouts, let, Romani adjuvant militem fuum: & ille defungi pralio feftinat. Prius itaque quam alter, qui nec procut aberat, confequi poffet, & alterum Curiatium conficit. 9. Famque aquato marte finguli fupererant, fed nec Spe nec viribus pares. Alterum inta&tum ferro corpus, & geminata victoria ferocem, in certamen tertium dabant: alter, feffum vulnere, feffum curfu trahens corpus, vic=tufque fratrum ante fe ftrage, victori objicitur hofti. Nec illud prælium fuit. How beautiful are the thoughts and expreffions! How lively the images and defcriptions! 10. Romanus exultans, Duos, inquit, fratrum manibus dedi: tertium caufæ belli hujufce, ut Romanus Albano imperet, dabo. Male fuftinenti arma, gladium fuperne jugulo defigit: jacentem foliat. P11. Romani ovantes ac gratulantes Horatium accipiunt, eo majore cum gaudio, quo propius metum res fu = erat. 12. Ad fepulturam inde fuorum nequaquam paribus animis vertuntur; quippe imperio alteri aucti, alteri ditionis alienæ facti. fhouts, fuch as generally proceed from unexpected joy, and he, on the other hand,haftens to put an end to the fecond combat; and in this manner, before the other combatant, who was not far off, could come up to affift his brother, he killed bin alfo. 19. There remained now but one combatant on each fide; but though their number was equal, their strength and hope were far from being fo. The Roman, Without a wound, and flushed with his double victory, advances with great confidence to this third combat. His antagonist, on the =contrary, weak from the lofs of blood, and fpent with running, fcarce drags his legs after him; and already vanquished by the death of his brothers, encounters the victor. But this could not be called a combac. F 2 10. The Roman then cried out with an air of triumph, I have facrificed the two first to the manes of my brothers; I will now facrifice the third to my country, that Rome may fubdue Alba, and give laws to it. Curiatius being fcarce able to carry his arms, the other thrufts his fword into his breaft, and afterwards takes his fpoils. P 11. The Romans receive Ho ratius in their camp with a joy and acknowledgment tioned to the danger they have efcaped. propor 9 12. After this, each party ap ply themselves in burying their dead, but with fentiments widely different; the Romans having enlarged their empire, and the Albans become the fubjects of a foreign power. I believe I believe nothing is more capable of forming the tafte of young people both for reading authors and compofition, than to propofe fuch paffages as thefe to them; and to habituate them to discover their beauties without any affiftance, by ftripping them of all their embellishments, and reducing them to fimple propofitions, as we have done here. This method will teach them how to find out and express thoughts. I fhall add feveral reflections from father Bouhours, moft of them, with examples from Latin and French authors, taken from his Maniere de bien penfer, &c.. Different reflections upon thoughts. 1. Truth is the first quality, and in a manner the fource of thoughts. The moft beautiful are vicious; or rather, those which pafs for beautiful, are not really fo, unless founded in truth. pag. 9. Thoughts are the images of things, as words are the images of thoughts; and to think, generally fpeaking, is to form in one's felf the picture of an object either of the fenfes or the understanding. Now images and pictures are only true from the refemblance they bear to their objects. Thus a thought is true, when it reprefents things faithfully; and false, when it reprefents them otherwife than as they are in themselves. Ibid. Truth, which is indivisible in other refpects, is not fo in this cafe. Thoughts are more or lefs true, as they are more or less conformable to their object. Entire conformity forms what we call the juft nefs of a thought; that is, as clothes fit, when they fit well on the body, and are completely proportioned to the person who wears them; fo thoughts are just when they perfectly agree with the things they represent: fo that a just thought, to speak properly, is a thought true in all refpects, and in every light we view it. p. 41. We have a beautiful example of this in the Latin epigram upon Dido, which has been fo happily tranflated into the French language. For the better understanding derftanding it, we muft fuppofe what hiftory relates of this matter; viz. that Dido fled to Africa with all her wealth, after Sicheus had been killed; and alfo what poefy feigns, viz. that he killed herself after Eneas had left her. ! Infelix Dido, nulli bene nupta marito: We must not however imagine that this play of words is any way effential to juftnefs, which does not always require fo much fymmetry, or fo great a fport of terms. It is enough for the thought to be true in all its extent, and that nothing be falfe in it, in whatever light we examine it, p. 41, 42. Plutarch, who was a man of folid understanding, condemns the celebrated thought of an hiftorian upon the burning of the temple of Ephefus: That it was no wonder this magnificent temple, dedicated to Diana, fhould be burnt the very night Alexander was born; becaufe, as the Goddess affifted at Olympia's delivery, The was fo very bufy, that he could not extinguish the fire. "Tis furprifing that Cicero looked upon this as a pretty thought; he who always thinks and judges right. But it is ftill more furprising that fo auftere a judge as Plutarch had fo far forgot his severity, as to add, that the hiftorian's reflection was cold enough to extinguish the fire, p. 49, 50. t Y Quintilian laughs very juftly at certain orators, who imagined there was fomething very beautiful in fay • Aufon. f On a remarqué ici une faute contre la langue, qui demande réduit au mafculin, parce que le nominatif eft après le verbe. Concinnè, ut multa; Timæus, qui cùm in hiftoria dixiffet, qua F no&te natus Alexander effet, eadem Dianæ Ephefiæ templum de flagraviffe: adjunxit, minimè id effe mirandum, quòd Diana, cùm in partu Olympiadis adeffe voluiffet, abfuiffet domo, De nat. Deor. 1. 2. n. 69. 3 ing, ing, That great rivers were navigable at their Springs, and that good trees bore fruit at their firft fhooting out of the ground. ["Thefe comparisons may dazzle at firft, and were very much cried up in Quintilian's time; but when we examine them narrowly, we dif cover the falfe in them,] p. 72. II. To think juftly, it is not enough that the thoughts have nothing falfe in them, for they fometimes become trivial by being true; and when Cicero applauds Craffus on this fubject of thoughts, after faying that orator's were so just and true, he adds, they are fo new and fo uncommon: Sententiæ Craffi tam integra, tam vera, tam nova. Viz. that befides truth, which always fatisfies the mind, fomething more is wanting to strike and furprize it..... Truth is to a thought, what foundations are to buildings; it fupports and gives it folidity: but a building, which had nothing to recommend it but folidity, would not please those who are skilled in architecture. Befides folidity, in well-built houfes, magnificence, beauty, and even delicacy are required and this I would have in the thoughts we are now fpeaking of. Truth, which pleafes fo much on other occafions without any embellishment, requires it here; and this ornament is fometimes no more than a new turn given to things. Examples will fhew the reader my meaning, Death Spares none. This is a very true thought, but it is very plain and common. In order to raise it, and make it new in fome refpect, we need only turn it as Horace and Malherbe have done. The former every body knows has it thus:: Pallida mors æquo pede "Quorum utrumque in iis eft, quæ me juvene ubique cantari folebant: Magnorum Aluminum navigabiles fontes funt: &, genero pulfat pauperum tabernas, Carm. lib. 1. od. 4. fioris arboris ftatim planta cum "Death |