try had their eyes upon their combat. This is a fine thought, but it is very much improved by the manner of turning it an exhortation more at length would be cold and languid. In reading the laft words, we imagine we fee thofe generous combatants advancing between the two armies with a noble, intrepid air of defiance. f 3. Confederant utrinque pro caftris duo exercitus, periculi magis præfentis quam cura expertes: quippe imperium agebatur, in tam paucorum virtute atque fortuna pofitum. Itaque ergo erecti fufpenfique in minime gratum fpectaculum animo intenduntur. Nothing was more fuitable here than this thought, periculi magis præfentis quam cura expertes; and Livy immediately affigns the reason of it. What image do thefet wo words, erecti fufpenfique, paint in our mind! 8 4. Datum fignum; infeftifque armis, velut acies, terni juvenes, magnorum exercituum animos gerentes, concurrunt. Nec bis, nec illis periculum fuum, publicum imperium fervitiumque obfervatur animo, futuraque ea deinde patriæ fortuna, quam ipfi feciffent. Ut primo ftatim concurfu increpuere arma, micantefque fulsere gladii, borror ingens fpectantes perftringit; & neutro inclinata Spe, torpebat vox fpiritufque. Nothing can be added to the noble idea which Livy gives us of these combatants in this place. The three brothers were on each fide like whole armies, and had f They were ranged on both fides round the field of battle, being more uneafy on account of the confequences to the ftate, than of the danger to which themfelves were expofed, because the combat was to determine which of the two nations fhould govern the other; and fo being agitated with these reflections, and folicitous about the event, they gave their whole attention to a fight which could not but alarm them. g 4. The fignal is given; the champions march three and three against each other; themselves a lone infpired with the courage of armies. Both fides, infenfible of their own danger, have nothing before their eyes, but the flavery or liberty of their country, whofe future destiny depends wholly upon their valour. The moment the clafhing of their weapons is heard, and the glitter of their swords is feen, the fpectators, seized with fear and alarm (while hope of fuccefs inclined to neither fide) continued motionlefs: fo that, one would have said, they had loft the ufe of their speech, and even of breath. the the courage of armies; infenfible of their own danger, they thought of nothing but the fate of the public, confided intirely to their perfonal valour. Two noble thoughts, and founded in truth! But can any one read what follows, and not be feized with equal horror and trembling with the spectators of the fight? The expreffions are all poetical in this place, and youth must be told, that poetical expreffions, which are to be used feldom and very sparingly, were requifite from the grandeur of the fubject, and the neceffity there was to describe so glorious a spectacle in a suitable pomp of words. The mournful filence, which kept both fides in a manner fufpended and immoveable, turned immediately into acclamations of joy, on the fide of the Albani, when they faw two of the Horatii killed. The Romans, on the other hand, loft all hope, and were in the utmost anxiety. Alarmed and trembling for the furviving Horatius, who was to combat three antagonifts, they had no thoughts but of the danger he was in. Was not this the real sense of both armies, after the fall of the two Horatii; and is not the picture which Livy has given us of it very natural? h 5. Confertis deinde manibus, cum jam non motus tantum corporum, agitatioque anceps telorum armorumque, fed vulnera quoque & fanguis fpectaculo effent; duo Romani fuper alium alius, vulneratis tribus Albanis, expirantes corruerunt. Ad quorum cafum cum conclamâset gaudio Albanus exercitus, Romanas legiones jam fpes tota, nondum tamen cura deferuirat, exanimos vice unius quem tres Curiatii circumfteterant. I fhall give the remainder of this quotation with little or no reflection, to avoid a tedious prolixity. I must only observe to the reader, that the chief beauty of h 5. Afterwards when they began to engage, not only the motion of their hands, and the brandishing of their weapons, drew the eyes of the fpectators, but the wounds, and blood running down: two Romans falling dead at the feet of the AlVOL. II. bani, who were all wounded. Up- this i this relation, as well as of hiftory in general, according to Cicero's judicious remark, confifts in the furprifing variety which runs through the whole, and the different emotions of fear, anxiety, hope, joy, despair, and grief, occafioned by the fudden alterations, and unexpected viciffitudes, which roufe the attention by an agreeable surprise, keep the reader in a kind of fufpenfe, and give him incredible pleasure. even from that uncertainty, especially where the narration concludes with an affecting and fingular event.. It will be eafy to apply thefe principles to every thing that follows. 6. Forte integer fuit; ut univerfis folum nequaquam par, fic adverfus fingulos ferox. Ergo, ut fegregaret pugnam eorum, capeffit fugam, ita ratus fecuturos, ut quemque vulnere affectum corpus fineret. 7. Fam aliquantum fpatii 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 cafe hofte victor fecundam pugnam petebat. 8. Tum clamore, qualis ex infperato faventium fo let. In order to divide his adverfaries, he fled, being perfuaded they would follow him with more or lefs 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. 8. The Romans then encourage their champion with great fhouts, let, Romani adjuvant militem fuum : & ille defungi prælio feftinat. Prius itaque quam alter, qui nec procul aberat, confequi poffet, & alterum Curiatium conficit. n 9. Famque aquato marte finguli fupererant, fed nec fpe nec viribus pares. Alterum intalum ferro corpus, & geminata victoria ferocem, in certamen tertium dabant : alter, fefum vulnere, feffum curfu trahens corpus, victufque fratrum ante fe ftrage, victori objicitur hofli. Nec illud prælium fuit. How beautiful are the thoughts and expreffions! How lively the images and defcriptions! • 10. Romanus exultans, Duos, iniquit, fratrum manibus dedi: tertium caufæ belli hujufce, ut Romanus Albano imperet, dabo. Male fuftinenti arma, gladium fuperne jugulo defigit: jacentem fpoliat. P 11. Romani ovantes ac gratulantes Horatium accipiunt, eo majore cum gaudio, quo propius metum res fuerat. 9 12. Ad fepulturam inde fuorum nequaquam paribus animis vertuntur; quippe imperio alteri aucti, alteri ditionis alienæ fatti. fhouts, fuch as generally proceed from unexpected joy; and he, on the other hand, haftens to put an end to the second combat; and in this manner, before the other combatant, who was not far off, could come up to affift his brother, he killed him alfo. ng. There remained now but one combatant on each fide; but, though their number was equal, their ftrength 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 bro thers, encounters the victor. But this could not be called a combat. F 2 10. The Reman then cried out with an air of triumph, I have faerificed the two firft to the manes of my brothers; I will now facrifice the third to my country, that Rome may fubdue Alba, and giye laws to it. Curiatius being fcarce able to carry his arms, the other thrusts his fword into his breaft, and afterwards takes his fpoils. P 11. The Romans receive Horatius in their camp with a joy and acknowledgment proportioned to the danger they have escaped. q 12. After this, each party apply themselves in burying their dead, but with fentiments widely different; the Romans having enlarged their empire, and the Albans become the subjects of a foreign power. 155816 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 these 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 exprefs thoughts. I fhall add several reflections from Father Bouhours, most of them with examples from Latin and French authors, taken from his Maniere de bien penfer, &c. Different reflections upon thoughts. I. Truth is the first quality, and in a manner the fource of thoughts The most 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 speaking, 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 represents things faithfully; and falfe, when it reprefents them otherwise than as they are in themfelves. 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. Intire conformity forms what we call the juftnefs 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 juft, when they perfectly agree with the things they reprefent; fo that a juft thought, to fpeak 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 |