trecenti ftare jufferunt: ftratufque per totam paffim Græciam Xerxes intellexit, quantum ab exercitu turba difta

ret.

Itaque Xerxes, pudore quam damno miferior, Demarato gratias egit, quod folus fibi verum dixiffet, & permifit petere quod vellet. Petit ille ut Sardes, maximam Afiae civitatem, curru vectus intraret, rectam capite tiaram ferens: id folis datum regibus. Dignus fuerat præmio, antequam peteret. Sed quam miferabilis gens, in qua nemo fuit qui verum diceret regi, nifi qui non dicebat fibi !

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We must own, that this little piece of Seneca is very fine, and that Demaratus's difcourfe is full of good fenfe and juft reflections; but methinks the style is too uniform, and the antithefis too often made use of. The thoughts are too clofe, and too much crouded. They are all disj inted from one another, which makes the ftyle too concife and abrupt. kind of point concludes almost every period: Scies te fugare poffe, cum fcieris pofe retineri. Ob hoc ipfum te Græcia vincet, quia non capit.-Multo ante vinceris, quam victum effe te fentias. This is not fo diftasteful, when we read only one diftinct paffage; but, when a whole work is in the fame ftrain, it is not eafy to bear the reading of it for any time, whereas thofe of Cicero and Livy never tire.

Besides, can we use so unconnected and corrupt a ftyle for difcourfes, where the auditors are to be inftructed and affected; and can it therefore be proper for the bar or the pulpit?

truth; and gave

Then Xerxes, more unhappy from the fhame and difgrace of fo fenflefs an expedition, than the lofs he had fuftained, thanked Demaratus, because only he told him the him leave to afk what favour he would: upon which the latter defired the liberty of making his entry into Sardis (one of the greatest cities of Afia) in a chariot, with an upright tiara upon his head, a privilege granted to kings only. He would have deferved

that favour, had he not afked it. Eut what idea fhall we entertain of a nation, where there was not a man to speak truth to the king, except one who did not tell it to himself?

s Unde foluta fere oratio, & è fingulis non membris, fed fruftis collata.

Nunc illud volunt, ut omnis locus, omnis fenfus, in fine fermonis, feriat aurem.

We

We sometimes meet in Cicero with this kind of thoughts clofing a period in a fhort and fprightly manner; but he is discreet and sparing in the ufe of those graces, which are, as it were the falt and feafoning of a difcourfe; and which, for that reason, muft not be lavished.

u Leviculus fane nofter Demofthenes, qui illo fufurro delectari fe dicebat aquam ferentis mulierculæ, ut mos in Græcia eft, infufurrantifque alteri: Hic eft ille Demofthenes. Quid hoc levius? at quantus orator! Sed apud alios loqui videlicet dedicerat, non multum ipfe fecum. This thought is very like that of Seneca's, Quam miferabilis gens, in qua nemo fuit qui verum diceret regi, nifi qui non dicebat fibi!

II. Seneca's reflections upon a saying of Augustus.

* Seneca relates a faying of Auguftus, who, being very much troubled for his having divulged the irregularities of his daughter, faid, he should not have been guilty of fo much imprudence, had Agrippa or Macenas been living. Seneca, to heighten this fentence, makes a very judicious reflection upon it: Adeo tot habenti millia hominum, duos reparare difficile eft! Cæfæ funt legiones, & protinus fcriptæ: fracta claffis, & intra paucos dies natavit nova: fævitum eft in opera publica ignibus, furrexerunt meliora confumptis. Tota vita, Agrippa & Macenatis vacavit locus. Nothing is more beautiful or judici

u Demofthenes, whom we admire fo much, must have been very vain, when he was so fenfibly affected, as he himself owns, with the little flattering expreffion of a woman that carried water, who, pointing at him with her finger, whisper'd to a neighbour. That is Demofbenes. How mean was this! And yet how great an orator was he! But this proceeded from his having learnt to speak to others, and feldom spoke to himself.

w Lib. 5. Tufcul. n. 103. x De Benef, 1. 6. c. 32.

y So difficult it is, among fo many millions, to find enough to repair the lofs of two! Legions have been cut to pieces, others have been raised immediately; a fleet has been wrecked, a new one has been built in a few days; a fire has confumed public edifices, when others more magnificent than the former rife almost immediately out of the earth; but, while Auguftus lived, the place of Agrippa and Mæcenas was always vacant,

ous

ons than this thought: All loffes may be repaired except that of a friend. But he fhould have ftopped there.

Quid putem? adds Seneca. Defuiffe fimiles qui affumerentur? an ipfius vitium fuiffe, qui maluit queri quam quærere! Non eft quod exiftimemus Agrippam & Mecenatem folitos illi vera dicere: qui, fi vixiffent, inter diffimulantes fuiffent. Regalis ingenii mos eft in præfentium contumeliam amiffa laudare, & his virtutem dare vera dicendi, à quibus jam audiendi periculum non eft.

Befides, that nothing is more trifling than this play of words, maluit queri quam quærere; the fecond reflection deftroys the firft intirely. This fuppofes it a difficult matter to fupply the lofs of good friends, and the other affirms quite the contrary. Farther, why does Seneca offer fo much injury to Auguftus, or rather to his two friends, as to fay, they did not use to tell him the truth; and that they durft not do it on the occafion in queftion? Mecenas had always the libertry of speaking freely to him; and we know that, at a certain trial, where Auguftus feemed inclinable to be cruel, this favourite, not being able to approach him, by reafon of the croud, threw a little note to him in writing, by which he defired him a to come away, and not act the part of the executioner. As for Agrippa, he had courage enough to advise Auguftus to restore the commonwealth to its ancient liberty, at a time that he was mafter of the empire, and deliberating whether he should form a republican or monarchical state.

z What shall I think of this faying of Auguftus? Muft I really imagine there were not fuch men left in the empire as he could make choice of for friends; or was it his own fault, chufing to complain, rather than to give himself the trouble of fearching for them? It is not probable,thatAgrippa and Mæcenas ufed to tell him truth; and,

had they been living, they would have been asifilent as others on this occafion. But it is a piece of policy among princes to speak well of the dead, to fhame the living; and to applaud the generous liberty of the former, in telling the truth, of which they have no longer any reafon to be afraid.

a Surge tandem, carnifex.

We

We see by this, that Seneca wanted a quality essential in an orator; that is, to know how to keep within the bounds of truth and beauty, and to prune, without mercy, whatever is more than neceflary to the perfection of the piece, according to that fine rule in Horace, Recideret omne quod ultra perfectum traheretur. Seneca was too much inamoured of his own genious; he could not prevail with himself to lose or facrifice any of his productions; and often weakened the strength, and debafed the greatnefs, of his fubjects by little trifling thoughts.

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III. Auother thought of Seneca upon the fcarcity of fincere friends.

• We meet with another very beautiful thought in the fame place upon the fubject of friendship. Seneca fpeaks of the croud who make their court to great

men.

e Ad quemcunque iftorum veneris, fays he, quorum falutatio urbem concupit, fcito, etamfi animadverteris obfeffas ingenti frequentia vicos, & commeantium in utramque partem catervis itinera compressa, tamen venire te in locum hominibus plenum, amicis vacuum. In pectore amicus, non in atrio quæritur. Illo recipiendus eft, illic retinendus, &in fenfus racondendus.

It must be acknowledged there is great beauty and vivacity in this thought and turn, venire te in locunt bominibus plenum, amicis vacuum. After all that has

been said of the bustle and noise in the city because of the incredible concourse of citizens who hurry to vifit

b Satyr. 10. lib. 1.

e Si aliqua contempfiffet..... Si non omnia fua amâffet, fi reJum pondera minutiffimis fententiis non fregiffet, confenfu potius eruditorum quam puerorum amore comprobaretur. Quintil. 1. 10, c. I.

d Senec, de benef. 1. 6. c. 34. e If you vifit any of those great men, to whom the whole city make their court; know, that 2

you find the streets befieged, and the roads barricaded by incredible numbers of people, who go back. ward and forward; you yet come into a place full of men, and empty of friends. We must look for a friend in the heart, and not in the antichamber. It is there we must receive and keep him, it is there we must lodge him fafely, as a depofite of inestimable value.

the

the great, and fill their palaces; this antithefis is very fine, in locum hominibus plenus, amicis vacuum, inte a place full of men, empty of friends. But to what end are the following words, in pectore amicus, non in atrio quæritur? A friend is to be fought in the heart, and not the antichamber? I only fee an antithefis there, and nothing further, and I confefs I have not been able to understand it.

F. Bouhours has not forgot to tell us what judgment we are to form of Seneca. Of all ingenious writers, "fays he, Seneca is the leaft capable of reducing his "thoughts to the boundaries required by good fenfe.

He would always pleafe, and he is fo afraid, that a

thought, which is beautiful in itself, fhould not "ftrike, that he represents it in all its lights, and "beautifies it with all the colours he can throw into "it. By repeating the fame thought, and turning it feveral ways, he fpoils it: not being fatisfied with "once faying a thing well, he improves its merit quite 66 away.

He cites a faying of Cardinal Pallavicino, which is pretty much in the Italian tafte, but is however judicious. "Seneca, fays the Cardinal, perfumes his "thoughts with amber and mufk, which, at laft, "affect the head; they are pleafing at first, but very "offenfive afterwards."

Another very celebrated author forms the fame judgment of Seneca, and gives, in a few words, excellent rules with regard to thoughts.

"There are, fays he, two forts of beauty in "eloquence, of which we must endeavour to make "youth fenfible. The one confifts in a beautiful and "juft, but, at the fame time, extraordinary and furprifing thoughts. Luchan, Seneca, and Tacitus, are full of thofe beauties. The other, on the contrary,

f Habet hoc Montanus vitium, fententias fuas repetendo corrumpit: dum non eft contentus unam rem femel bene dicere, efficit ne

bene dixerit. Controver. 5. 1. 9.

g M. Nicole, in bis education of a prince, 2 Part, n. 39, 40.

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