The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-14

material of the same color; and, far from
finding in red eyes an excuse for coward |
sloth, they deemed it foul scorn that the |
''good tall fellow who had them did not lead |
his army to the fight. They we're, indeed, |
convinced that he was no soldier, yet not |
from the color of his eyes, but because they |
saw that it was dearer to him to sit by the |
fresde in Edinburgh than to ride forth to
battle with his nine sons whose delight was |
in arms. This is what Frossart says:-
cor vint lie roi Robert d Escosse, un grand bon |
homme a uns rouges yeux rebracies; lis sembloent |
founes de senda; ct ben montroit que n n'etolt |
pas aux armes trop valiant homme ct que II cut |
plus cher lie soourner que lie chevaucher; mais il
avoit Jusques neuf Ills ct ceuX aimoient les
armes"
After relating the departure of the army from
Edinburgh, Frossart oontinues:-
"a cette chevauehee netot point lie ro mats etoit
demeure en- Haindebourch, ct etolent tous ses en-
fans en- larmee."
The Froissart in whose chronicles DIR. Lin
gard found amusement was not the Canon of
Chimay himself, nor Lord Berners whose
translation was preferred by Walter Scott,
and who, in this place as in others, has given
a true, though free, Interpretation. Mr.
Johnes, of Hafod, was the blind guide whom
DIR. Lingard blindly followed.
Once more. The elder Disraeli, of whom
it has been said that he never rested satisfied
until he had consulted original authorities
tells us in chapter on Literary Blunders:"
"Lord Boingbroke imagined that in those famous
beginning with E1cudent aE etc., Virgil at
tributed to the Romans the glory of having sur
passed the Greeks in historical com position accord
ing to his dea those Roman historians whom Virgil
preferred to the Greclans were Sallust, Lvy, and
Tacitus But Virgil died before Ivy had written his
history, or Tacitus was born"
Here is cause enough to wonder at the
strange fashion of Bolingbroke's understand
ing. How could he imagine that Virgil attri-
buted any such glory to his countrymen when
the famous verses
"Excudent aln spirantia moius ara,
Credo equidem, vvos ducent de marmore vultus!
Orabunt causas melius, celique meatus
escrbent radio, ct surgentia sidera dcent:
Tu regere tmper1o populos, Romano, memento;
Ha tbi erunt artes pacisque imponere morem,
Parsere SUBJECTS, ct debellare superbos"-
do not contain the faintest allusion to histo-
rians Roman or Grecan, and, while they give
to the Greeks superiority in the fine arts, ex-
pressly limit the province of the Romans to
| the arts of dominion? How, if he meant to
say that Tacitus, who was born some eighty
years after the death of Virgil, fourished
with him in the Augustan age, could he add
Immediately this fragrant contradiction,
"when Tacitus wrote taste was grown cor
rupt as we'll as manners?" But as regards
Bolingbroke, there is no cause for wonder
In the plainest possible words, he expressed
surprise that Virgil did not give the glory to
his countrymen. The wonder is
how Disraeli could fall into so preposterous
an error. 1t happened in this way. He did
not look at the "Eneid;" he did not look at
the ''Letters on the Study of History" where
| Virgirs verses are copied at the foot of the
page. He looked at book il which they are
not copied and which he does not name
'Bishop Newton on the Prophecies he
looked with 80 careless an eye that, with per-
feet innocence of intention, he converted
mere controversial Misrepresentation into
downright assertion of thing that was not.
ID ID
for his imaginary blunder, has been followed
by the author of ''Tremaine, had writsen:-
"Hs Lordship is of opinion that Virgil, in those
famous verses, Excudent alii, etc., might have
writing history better than the Grecians.' But
which are the Roman historians that be pre-
precious remains, says his Lordship 'of Sallust OF
Livy, and OF Tacitus; But it happened that Virgil
died before Lvy had written his history, and before
Tacitus was born. And Is not this an excellent
chronologer, now, to correct ancient history and
chronology sacred and profane?"
There is no blunder here; but there is
something less pleasant want of care to
repeat, with perfect good faith, the words of
an adversary. Those to whom the Essay on
History was known only by the Bishops
report were led to believe that Ssllust, Livy,
and Tacitus were the only historians named
by Bolingbroke, and that he named them
expressly as the historians whom Virgil
ought to nave preferred. Yet he named alto
| R6tucI tIBut, aluuluB dlbO W uu-
named, and he did not name any one of the
eight until Virgil had passed out of his
thought. In his letter to Lord Cornbury,
after distinguishing antiquaries and annal-
lists from historians, and telling how, as
nations grew into manhood, history, at first
intended only to record great names and re-
markable events, was raised to answer the
nobler end of lesson Of ethics aud politics,
he spoke of the growth of annals into true
history among the Greeks and Romans
''Thus (he says) it happened among the Greeks but
much more among the Romans, notWithstand-
ing the prejudice in favor of the former, even
among the latter. have sometimes thought that
Virgil might have Justly ascrioed to his cOuutrymen
of anordng the noblesG subjects for 1t, in those
famous verses EXenden Mt ai,' etc, where the diff
ferent excellencles OF the two nations are 80 nney
touched, but he would have weakened, perhaps by
lengthening, and have nattened the Climax"
Here he passed away from Virgil, and went
on, according to his purpose, to establish the
, superiority of the Roman historians. He
: mentioned Herodotas as an entertaining
, story teller, gave high praise to ThucYdides
, and Xenophon, who treated but small por-
,, tons of history, and, adding that Polybius
and Dionysius of Haicarnassus must bow to
! the great Roman authors, he proceeded
''Many principal me n OF that common wealth wrote
memorials OF their own actions and their own times
-Syla, Caesar, Labienus Polio, Augustus, and
3 others. What writer's Of memorials what comp
eIs OF the mate ia histOrcd these what genius
was necessary to finish up the pictures that such
masters had sketched! Rome afforded men thai
were equal TO the task. Let the remains the pre-
: ciOus remains OF Saust. of LiVy, and OF Taeitui
witness this truth. When Tacitus wrote, even the
appearance OF virtue had been long prescribed and
taste was grown corrupt as well as manners-ye
y history preserved her Integrity and her lustre."
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