in divers places absolutè positus, as in that place of Jugurth, speaking de Leptitanis, itaque ab imperatore facilè quæ petebant adepti, missæ sunt eò cohortes Ligurum quatuor. This thing in participles, used so often in Thucydides, and other Greek authors too, may better be borne withal, but Sallust useth the same more strangely and boldly, as in these words, Multis sibi quisque imperium petentibus. I believe the best grammarian in England can scarce give a good rule why quisque, the nominative case without any verb, is so thrust up among so many oblique cases. Some man perchance will smile and laugh to scorn this my writing, and call it idle curiosity, thus to busy myself in pickling about these small points of grammar, not fit for my age, place, and calling to trifle in; I trust that man, be he never so great in authority, never so wise and learned, either by other men's judgment or his own opinion, will yet think that he is not greater in England than Tully was at Rome, nor yet wiser, nor better learned than Tully was himself, who, at the pitch of three score years, in the midst of the broil betwixt Cæsar and Pompeii, when he knew not whither to send wife and children, which way to go, where to hide himself, yet, in an earnest letter amongst his earnest counsels for those heavy times concerning both the common state of his country and his own private great affairs, he was neither unmindful nor ashamed to reason at large, and learn gladly of Atticus a less point of grammar than these be, noted of me in Sallust, as whether he should write ad Piraea, in Piræea, or Piraeum sine præpositione. And in those heavy times he was so careful to know this small point of grammar, that he addeth these words, Si hoc mihi Shτnua persolveris, magna me molestia liberaris. If Tully, at that age, in that authority, in that care for his country, in that jeopardy for himself, and extreme necessity of his dearest friends, being also the prince of eloquence himself, was not ashamed to descend to these low points of grammar in his own natural tongue, what should scholars do, yea, what should any man do, if he do think well-doing better than ill-doing, and had rather be perfect than mean, sure than doubtful, to be what he should be in deed, not seem what he is not in opinion? He that maketh perfectness in the Latin tongue his mark, must come to it by choice and certain knowledge, not stumble upon it by chance and doubtful ignorance. And the right steps to reach unto it be these, linked thus orderly together: aptness of nature, love of learning, diligence in right order, constancy with pleasant moderation, and always to learn of them that be best, and so shall you judge as they that be wisest. And these be those rules which worthy Master Cheke did impart unto me concerning Sallust, and the right judgment of the Latin tongue. Cæsar. Cæsar, for that little of him that is left unto us, is like the half face of a Venus, the other part of the head being hidden, the body and the rest of the members unbegun, yet so excellently done by Apelles, as all men may stand still to maze and muse upon it, and no man step forth with any hope to perform the like. His seven books de bello Gallico, and three de bello Civili, be written so wisely for the matter, so eloquently for the tongue, that neither his greatest enemies could ever find the least note of partiality in him (a marvellous wisdom of a man, namely writing of his own doings), nor yet the best judges of the Latin tongue, nor the most envious lookers upon other men's writings, can say any other but all things be most perfectly done by him. Brutus, Calvus, and Calidius, who found fault with Tully's fulness in words and matter, and that rightly, for Tully did both confess it and mend it, yet in Cæsar they neither did, nor could find the like, or any other fault. And therefore thus justly I may conclude of Cæsar, that where, in all other, the best that ever wrote in any time, or in any tongue, in Greek or Latin, I except neither Plato, Demosthenes, nor Tully, some fault is justly noted, in Cæsar only could never yet fault be found. Yet nevertheless, for all this perfect excellency in him, yet it is but in one member of eloquence, and that but of one side neither, when we must look for that example to follow, which hath a perfect head, a whole body forward and backward, arms and legs and all. THE END Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.O. 30.309 |