"With thefe views Dioclefian had selected and embellished the refidence of Nicomedia."Is Nicomedia a Prince, whofe refidence the Emperor felected and embellifhed? This is the most obvious meaning of the fentence. But Nicomedia, we learn from other paffages, was a city, the refidence itself of the Emperor. Yet the author could not tell us this in a few plain words, without fpoiling the harmony of the phrafe; he chofe therefore to leave it obfcure and ungrammatical. 66 : But the memory of Dioclefian was justly abhorred by the protector of the Church and Conftantine was not infenfible to the ambition of founding a city, which might perpetuate the glory of his own name." Who is the protector of the Church? By Conftantine's being mentioned immediately after, one would think he cannot be the perfon intended; yet on examination this is found to be the cafe.. But why this feparate appellation? It feems the author meant by it to convey this idea :-That Dioclesian was a perfecutor of the church, therefore his memory was abhorred by Conftantine, who was its protector; the cause of Conflantine's abhorrence is implied, and meant to be unfolded to the reader in a fingle epithet. Is this history? I muft have the liberty to think that fuch terfeness of ftyle, notwithstanding the authorities of Tacitus and Gibbon, is a grofs corruption, and a capital fault. In defcription our author often indulges a figurative poetical manner highly improper. "The figure of the imperial city (Conftantinople) may be reprefented under that of an unequal triangle. The obtufe point, which advances towards the eaft, and the fhores of Afia, meets and repels the waves of the Thracian Bofphorus." Here the author foars on poetic wings, and we behold the obtufe point of a triangle marching eastward, attacking and repulfing its foes, the waves of the Bofphorus: in the next line the author finks from the heights of Parnaffus, and creeps on the plain of fimple narrative-" The northern fide of the city is bounded by the harbour.” On thefe banks tradition long preferved the memory of the fylvan reign of Amycus, who defied the fon of Leda to the combat of the ceftus." The author takes it for granted that his reader is acquainted with all the antient fables of Greece and Rome. Such allufons to facts or fables make a wretched figure in fober hiftory.* "The author, after the manner of the poets, admits epifodes into his defcriptions, by way of variety and embellishment. He begins a defcription of Conftantinople; to do juftice to the city, he must defcribe its fituation; he therefore gives an account of the Thracian Bofphorus, the Propontis, and Hellefpont, interfperfed with antient fables, So Gillies, in his Hiftory of Greece, chap. ii. talks about the death of the "Friend of Achilles; but leaves the reader to difcover the perfon-not having once mentioned the name of PATROCLUS. I would obferve further, that fuch appellations as the soN OF LEDA are borrowed from the Greek; but wholly improper in our language. The Greeks had a diftinct ending of the name of the father to fig nify fon or defcendants; as HERACLIDE. This form of the noun was known and had a definite meaning in Greece; but in English the idiom is awkward and embarraffing. fables, and adorned with poetical imagery. When he arrives at the mouth of the Hellefpont, his fancy leads him to the feat of antient Troy, and he cannot pafs it, without telling us from Homer, where the Grecian armies were encamped; where the flanks of the army were guarded by Agamemnon's braveft chiefs; where Achilles and his Myrmidons occupied a promontory; where Ajax pitched his tent; and where his tomb was erected after his death. After indulging his fancy on this memorable field of heroie actions, he is qualified to defcribe Conftantinople. But it is needless to multiply examples for fimilar faults occur in almost every page. Moft men, who have read this History, perceive a difficulty in understanding it; yet few have attempted to find the reafon, and hardly a man has dared to cenfure the style and manner. To what caufe then fhall we afcribe the almoft unanimous confent of the English and Americans, in lavishing praifes upon Gibbon's Hiftory? In fome meafure, doubtlefs, to the greatnefs of the attempt, and the want of an English Hiflory which should unfold the series of events which connects antient and modern times. The man who shoul light a lamp, to illuminate the dark period of time from the fifth to the fifteenth century, would deferve immortal honours. The attempt is great; it is noble; it is meritorious. Gibbon appears to have been faithful, laborious, and perhaps impartial. It is his ftyle and manner only I am cenfuring; for thefe are exceedingly faulty. For proof of this I appeal to a fingle fact, which I have never heard contradicted that a man who would comprehend Gibbon, must read with painful attention, and after all receive little improvement. The encomiums of his countrymen proceed from falfe taste; a tafte for fuperfluous ornament. Men are difpofed to leffen the trouble of reading, and to fpare the labour of examining into the caufes and confequences of events, They choofe to please their eyes and ears rather than feed the mind. Hence the rage for abridgments, and the difplay of rhetorical embellishments, But a man who would know the minute fo fprings of action; the remote and collateral, as well as the direct caufes and confequences of events; and the nice hades of character which diftinguish eminent men, with a view to draw rules from living examples; fuch a man muft pafs by abridgments as trash; he muft have recourfe to the original writers, or to collections of authentic papers. Indeed a collection of all the material official papers, arranged in the order of time, however dry and unentertaining to moft readers, is really the beft, and the only authentic history of a country. The philofopher and flatefman, who wish to fubftitute fact for opinion, will generally fufpect human teftimony, but repofe full confidence in the evidence of papers which have been the original instruments of public tranfactions, and recorded by public authority. Thefe ftrictures are contrary to the opinions of most men, especially as they regard the ftyle of the author mentioned. Yet they are written with full conviction of their being well founded. They proceed from an carnet defire of arrefting the progrefs of falle talte writing, and of feeing my countrymen called back to nature and truth WWE ai moibi odii. 9.1 and, 259910 al giok : 921 4 FOR NOR FOR THE SENTIMENTAL AND MASONIC MAGAZINE. AN ORIGINAL HISTORICAL ESSAY, [CONTINUED FROM P. 517, DEC.] OR was his conduct lefs noble, or lefs deferving of applaufe in perfuading the Athenians to recal the exiles from banishment; in this he manifefted a generofity of foul, the greateft, perhaps, of which human nature is capable: in the number of those exiles was his dangerous rival, his mortal foe, Ariftides, the man whofe genius he feared, whofe virtues overawed him, and whofe influence, at the prefent important moment, might ferve to destroy his own; fuperior to the fear of little minds, to the whifpers of jealoufy, to the motives of self-aggrandisement, he entreats, folicits, and obtains a deeree in his favour; he, who before had procured his difgrace and banishment; partial refentment was facrificed to the protection of his country.— Ariftides was restored again to Athens, where his credit, fervices and reputation were again confpicuous and devoted to her fafety and defence. He alfo effected a peace between the Athenians and the people of Ægina, that nothing might divert their exertions from the prefent object. The folemn queftion at length was agitated of appointing a general to the Athenian forces; a truft fo mighty, at fuch a crisis, and against the greatest army that Europe or the Eaft had heard of, overawed even the boldeft pretenders; a candidate, however, deftitute of military talents or experience, started up in oppofition to Themistocles; Epycides, a native of Athens, unufed to arms, but poffeffed of unlimited influence among the citizens, demanded their fuffrages in his favour; his wealth, which was unbounded-and his eloquence, which was all he could boast of-procured him a number of partizans; but the merit of Themiftocles, fo univerfally known and acknowledged, his recent fervices not only in the field, but in preparing for this mighty occafion, bore down the arrogant claim of his opponent, and railed him to the fupreme command: it is faid that, on this occafion, he made no fcruple of advancing his fortunes by every address of bribes and ingenuity, and that he owed his election, in a great meafure, to the avarice of his rival, who by his well employed bounty was removed from this dangerous competition: if fuch his practices, they are not only to be excufed, but applauded; his views, divefted of every motive of self-advancement or ambition, were folely directed to the public weal; he faw the danger to which his country was expofed, and, poffeffed with a kind of prophetic confidence in himself, believed that he alone was capable of refifting the approaching torrent. The Perfian king urged on his march through Theffaly, while his fleets, which extended along the Theffalian Coast, after innumerable dangers, and furmounting the Theffalian Gulph, were directing their courfe to Euboea, through the pafs of mount Athos; difmay and terror marked his approach-Euribyades, who commanded the confederate fleet of the Greeks, deftitute of firmnefs or of courage in the hour of trial, trial, retired, panic-ftruck, from Artemifium, and fied with precipitation to Chalcis ;, the Perfians, anticipating their apparent advantage, difpatched two hundred fhips to Euboea to cut off the retreat of the Greeks, but a furious tempeft, which commenced almoft at the fame moment of their intended defign, humbled at once their prefumption and their hopes. Four hundred of their fhips were dafhed on the rocks of Magnefia, and most of their devoted numbers perished; adversity, that conducted the Perfians in almost all their defigns, was still unable to deprefs their fortitude; with ftrength and courage unfubdued, they foon prepared for an engagement; the Grecian admiral, elated by the late difafter of the enemy, had haftened again to Artemifium with fome better hope of fuccefs; but on perceiving the Perfians approach undifmayed, his fears and cowardice returned, nor could any thing prevail on him to hazard the event of a fight, but the allurement of a bribe from the Euboeans, when even the entreaties of Themistocles were vain; a fatal arrogance had not only feemed to infect the Perfian leaders, but even the various people of which their forces confifted; to this delufion may be afcribed, in fome measure, their repeated misfortunes; ever confident of fuccefs, they often prefumed on a victory that their valour or their prudence was unequal to obtain; previous to the attack, they offered large rewards to thofe who fhould capture or fecure any of the confederate veffels, and this, though certainly not the effect of rashness, so operated on the infulted Spirit of the foe, that determined valour and resolution, were the only confequences it produced; the fight at length commenced, and in this engagement the fortune of Greece prevailed; thirty of the Perfian veffels were deftroyed, when night put an end to a victory that might have been more complete: this temporary paufe was attended with more disasters to the Perfian fleet, than all they had experienced from the utmost fury of the Athenians: the veil of night had fcarcely interrupted the battle, when a fecond ftorm, more furious than the firft, affailed them; the elements, as if in league against them, deftroyed what the enemy had fpared; two hundred veffels, thofe which were dispatched to Euboea, perished without a fingle exception; the reft, difperfed and broken, their crew difmayed, their leaders unable to restrain them, fled before the impetuous Greeks, incapable of further refiftance; fortune feemed as profufe of her favour to the Greeks, as fhe was niggard of them to their devoted enemy; a reinforcement of fifty fhips from Athens, contributed to complete their fuccefs; with thefe they attacked the Cilicians who were in alliance with Xerxes, and deftroyed a confiderable number of their veffels; afhamed of this defeat from an enemy so every way inferior, the Perfian Admirals refolved to hazard the event of another engagement; never was conteft maintained with greater violence; the Greeks elated with fuccefs, and bent on death or victory, received the furious attack of the Perfians with unfhaken firmness and addrefs: equal courage and refolution was displayed by the mortified foe, who endeavoured to obliterate their recent difgrace, by fome exploit of fignal and desperate valour; in vain however were all their efforts against the collected force of Greece, and unable; longer to maintain their ground, they retired from the fruitless attempt; the advantage was pretty equal on both fides. fides. The fame day that beheld the triumph of the Grecian fleet at Artemifium, also witneffed the brilliant actions, the valour and the fate of Leonidas. It had been refolved on by the allies, to wait the approach of Xerxes at Thermopylae, that celebrated pass, that was the theatre of fo much glory to the name of Sparta; it was an inconfiderable ftreight fituated between Theffaly, and Phocis, furrounded on all fides by lofty mountains and ftupendous rocks, whofe vaft enclosures rendered it altogether inacceffible; nature had fo fecured and defended it, that even a trifling force from within would be able to refift and to repel the moft numerous affailants; this, as the only paffage from Theffaly to Greece, it was expected would be the object of Xerxes. Leonidas, whofe greatnefs and whofe actions the voice of fame has with fo much juftice recorded, flew with four thoufand of the confederate Greeks, to the defence of this important pafs; previous to his departure he had confulted the Delphic Priestess as to the event of this expedition, who delivered a refponfe that might intimidate, or awe, even the boldeft; fhe declared that nothing but the death of one of the royal line of the Heraclide, could eventually fave the country. Leonidas at this time was one of the kings of Sparta, and fecretly refolved to devote himfelf to the glorious occafion; under fuch circumstances, even whilft he knew his doom inevitable, with a zeal and animation that till enhance the hero, he fet out for the pass of Thermopyle. The Perfian monarch, as was rightly conjectured, directed his first attack against Thermopyla; in his progrefs through Theffaly, Thrace and Macedonia, all things had fubmitted to his power, and he vainly imagined that, from the terror of his name, without striking a single blow, Greece would be reduced to fubmiffion. When he beheld the wretched numbers that prefumed to difpute his paffage, he treated their imaginary valour with contempt, fmiling at the vain delufion that could tempt them to refift the forces of Perfia; furprized however at this daring refolution, he difpatched fome fcouts, to obferve their motions, their numbers and their preparations, who found the Spartans occupied in their ufual cuftoms previous to every battle they fought, fome in attending to their drefs, others in military exploite, and all devoted to the appearance of public feftivity; unable to folve this inconfiftent conduct, he fill conceived fome hopes of their retreating before him, and for this purpofe hoftilities were delayed for four fucceffive days, during which time, every means of artful addrefs and royal promifes were employed to corrupt the fidelity of Leonidas, who replied to all the entreaties of the Perfian with unreferved and daring menaces; at length despairing of other means, Xerxes ordered his Median troops to commence the attack with vigour, but at the very firft charge of the Greeks this detachment was inftantly routed and put to flight; the immortal band under the conduct of Hydarnes, confifting of ten thousand men, the best appointed and the flower of the Perfian forces, were next commanded to engage them, but Grecian valour again prevailed over men till then efteemed invincible; they Mhared a fimilar fate with the Medes, and were completely repulfed and defeated. |