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naturalists: it is even now said, that the ants mentioned in the Third Book 51, as throwing up the gold sand, have been recognised lately in the animal called the corsac 52, a sort of dog or fox so true is the remark made by the illustrious Boerhaave, in shewing the possibility of the account of the fountain in the country of the Macrobian Ethiopians 53 being true: "Hodiernæ observationes probant fere omnia MAGNI VERI dicta 54." Those, therefore, who join in the trite and old cry of falsehood against Herodotus, in this day, give no slight evidence of their own vanity and presumption in ancient times, indeed, when the world was little known, men might be excused, if they brought the accusation against an author, who was not only a great traveller, but likewise too honest to follow the poet's precept:

Οὔ τοι ἅπασα κερδίων

φαίνοισα πρόσωπον ἀλάθει ἀτρεκής.
Καὶ τὸ σιγᾷν πολλάκις ἐστὶ σοφώ-
τατον ἀνθρώπων νοῆσαι 55.

But, in examining how far an historian is entitled to the confidence of his readers, there are two questions, to which the attention must be particularly directed; namely, 1. Whether he is blindly partial to any particular country? 2. Whether he is inclined to favour any particular system of political government? Patriotic and political prejudices, however necessary to tighten the bonds of human society, ought to be carefully excluded from history; the main object of which is, to unfold the nature of man, as acted upon by different religions, climates, and governments. When, however, the writer of history starts with

51 Lib. iii. 102.

52 Miot. Traduction d'Hérodote, p. xxiv.

53 Lib. iii. 23. 54 Boerhaave, Elementa Chymiæ, quoted by Wesseling. 55 Pind. Nem. Carm. v. 30, seqq. Herodotus was aware of the prudence of the maxim: ἐκ δὲ κέγχρου καὶ σησάμου ὅσον τι δένδρον μέγαθος γίνεται, ἐξεπιστάμενος, μνήμην οὐ ποιήσομαι· εὖ εἰδὼς ὅτι τοῖσι μὴ ἀπιγμένοισι ἐς τὴν Βαβυ λωνίην χώρην, καὶ τὰ εἰρημένα καρπῶν ἐχόμενα ἐς ἀπιστίην πολλὴν ἀπῖκται. Lib. i. 193.

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the design of shewing the superiority of any particular society of men, or of any particular form of government, it generally happens, that the love of system gives a tincture to statements, even accurate in themselves, which hinders the reader from detecting the truth. It is another merit of Herodotus, that his work is free from such defects he praises and censures by turns all the nations he has to mention, and leaves the reader to frame his own judgment respecting their comparative ranks in the scale of moral and political discipline. He has been accused of harbouring a grudge against the Corinthians: that people of merchants was not, probably, an object of great interest to a man of elegant acquirements and refined taste; and, from the eagerness with which Herodotus seems to seize every opportunity of producing such facts as may deteriorate the respect for their national character, one might also be tempted to suppose that the charge brought against him was not entirely unfounded. But even the parts of the History connected with this people afford ample evidence of his honest and upright mode of dealing: the Corinthians are represented as playing by far the most honourable and decisive part in the conference of the Lacedæmonian confederates, respecting the expediency of replacing the Pisistratidæ in the tyranny of Athens :-" If you persist," says the Corinthian representative to the hankerers after universal power, "if you

66

56

persist in endeavouring to replace Hippias on his "throne, know that the Corinthians will not second you:" ἴστε ὑμῖν Κορινθίους γε οὐ συναινέοντας 5. Again, after pourtraying in vivid colours, perhaps indeed too vivid, the dastardly conduct of Adimantus, the Corinthian admiral, at the battle of Salamis, he takes care to state, that he speaks from the authority of the Athenians, whose report was contradicted by the universal testimony of Greece 57.

56 Lib. v. 92.

57 Lib. viii. 94. See likewise ix. 102.

58

But perhaps, after all, the greatest proof that can be adduced of the veracity and impartiality of Herodotus is the recitation of his History at the Olympic games. This event seems to be too well authenticated to admit of any doubt: its probability is likewise not a little increased by the evident marks which the History itself bears of having been composed for the purpose of recitation: hence those pleonastic sentences so often occurring at the termination of the different branches of the narrative; such as, Tоσαuтα μὲν θυωμάτων πέρι εἰρήσθω 5, and many others too frequent to enumerate: they are in Herodotus much more numerous than might even be expected in an author that wrote before paragraphic divisions came into vogue; and can only be accounted for under the supposition, that they were intended to direct the attention of the hearer to those parts where the narrative changes its subject. Now, at the time that Herodotus read his History at the Olympic games, it was only one hundred years since Cyrus had destroyed the empire of the Medes; not more than ninetyseven since he had conquered Cræsus; not more than seventy since Cyrus himself had died; and about thirtysix years since Xerxes commenced his expedition against Greece. It may therefore be assumed, that, among the persons composing the audience of the Historian, there must have been some individuals who had actually shared in the war, and many who were acquainted, by immediate tradition, with all the events of that glorious struggle: unless, then, Herodotus had stated the truth, particularly in every thing respecting the Greek nations, there can be no doubt that some person would have been found to have contradicted the eloquent but false narrator: had that been the case, some of the detractors, whom the well-earned fame of Herodotus excited against him in subsequent times, would not have failed to make proper use of a circumstance so favourable to their own designs: but Plutarch, the

58 Lib. iii. 112.

most bitter of the critics of Herodotus, who even grasps at the opportunity afforded by the use of equivocal terms " to ground his accusation against Herodotus of malignity, and whose disgraceful tract subsists to this day, mentions no such circumstance: it is therefore highly probable that no such contradictor was found. The whole of Greece assembled must consequently have been convinced of the veracity of the History; and surely modern readers cannot require a safer warrant of its authenticity, so far at least as the Grecian history is in any respect concerned.

POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF HERODOTUS.

As to the political principles of Herodotus, he has explained them too clearly for the most careless reader to be in doubt what they really were: he was a republican: this is proved, not only by the events of his life, but likewise by his own words: δηλοῖ δὲ οὐ κατ ̓ ἓν μοῦνον, ἀλλὰ πανταχῆ, ἡ ἰσηγορίη ὡς ἔστι χρῆμα σπουδαῖον 6. The truth of which observation he illustrates by the rapid rise of the Athenian commonwealth, after the expulsion of the tyrants. We must beware, however, of attributing an improper and too extensive sense to the word isagoria: it certainly means, in Herodotus, nothing more than the even-handed award of justice according to law, and the equal right, possessed by all citizens, of raising themselves to rank in the state, by the proper cultivation of the talents with which Providence may have blessed them. This liberty was incompatible with the existence of the Túpavvos, who was obliged to ensure the possession of an usurped throne by the partiality of favour shewn to his own creatures: it might, however, be co-existent with the Baσiλɛùs, as at Sparta for instance, where, although there were two kings, the law was the sole master, both over the kings and the subjects". The Historian even appears anxious,

59 See Wesseling's note on lib. ix. 63, 3. vol. iv. p.1090. Gaisford's edit. Co Lib. v. 78. 61 Lib. vi. 52. 62 Lib. vii. 104.

in different places, to impress on the Grecian readers a fact which they seem to have been unwilling to believe; namely, that the Persian nation were not without the true feelings of liberty. In the Third Book, the seven grandees, having put the Magi to death, hold counsel on what form of government it will be expedient to adopt, now that the direct line from Cyrus is extinct: the respective speakers shew the advantages of a democracy, of an aristocracy, of a monarchy: the proposal of retaining the monarchical form of government at last prevails. It would be the height of folly to suppose that the very words written by the Historian were really spoken by the orators: the intention of Herodotus was, no doubt, to shew the Greeks, that people who have as good ideas of the advantages of liberty as those on which the best republicans are wont to pride themselves, may choose, owing to various circumstances, to subject themselves to a monarchy: indeed, have we not seen the reasoning of Darius exemplified, in its minutest details, by the Revolution of France? This fact, however, some of the Grecians were unwilling to allow hence the strong expression of the Historianκαὶ ἐλέχθησαν λόγοι ἄπιστοι μὲν ἐνίοισι Ἑλλήνων, ἐλέχθησαν δ ̓ ὦν 63. Mardonius, the Persian satrap, gives a democratical constitution to the Ionian states; an extraordinary circumstance in the eyes of the Greek republicans; which Herodotus takes care to produce, as a corroboration of the probability of the sentiments placed in the mouths of the conspirators against the Magi. Although a republican, therefore, by principle, Herodotus was willing to allow that every nation knew best what government was fitting for itself: "For," says he, in one place, "were one 66 to offer all nations to make their choice of the best laws "out of all codes, they would each, after mature reflection. "select their own; so convinced is every nation that its own institutions are much the best 65" It must not be

63 Lib. iii. 80.

64 Lib. vi. 43.

65 Lib. iii, 38,

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