It is not our design to criticise the facts of this history, but the
style; not the veracity, but the address of the writer; for, an account
of the ancient Romans, as it cannot nearly interest any present reader,
and must be drawn from writings that have been long known, can owe its
value only to the language in which it is delivered, and the reflections
with which it is accompanied. Dr. Blackwell, however, seems to have
heated his imagination, so as to be much affected with every event, and
to believe that he can affect others. Enthusiasm is, indeed,
sufficiently contagious; but I never found any of his readers much
enamoured of the _glorious Pompey, the patriot approv'd_, or much
incensed against the _lawless Caesar_, whom this author, probably, stabs
every day and night in his sleeping or waking dreams.
He is come too late into the world with his fury for freedom, with his
Brutus and Cassius. We have all, on this side of the Tweed, long since
settled our opinions: his zeal for Roman liberty and declamations
against the violators of the republican constitution, only stand now in
the reader's way, who wishes to proceed in the narrative without the
interruption of epithets and exclamations.
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