" I would remark here,
that many of the old writers give me the sense of handling things, they
are definite and solid; while some of the moderns appear to play with
words only, and never to come up with the objects of their pursuit: "we
are too often ravished with a sonorous sentence," as Dr. Johnson says, "of
which, when the noise is past, the meaning does not long remain." But of
Tacitus, Gordon says, "His words and phrases are admirably adapted to his
matter and conceptions, and make impressions sudden and wonderful upon the
mind of man. Stile is a part of genius, and Tacitus had one peculiar to
himself; a sort of language of his own, one fit to express the amazing
vigour of his spirit, and that redundancy of reflections which for force
and frequency are to be equalled by no writer before nor since."
Dr. Johnson, however, says in another place, "Tacitus, Sir, seems to me
rather to have made notes for an historical work, than to have written a
history:" I must own, that upon the subject of Tacitus, I prefer the
sentiments of Gordon; and Montaigne would agree with me, for he says, "I
do not know any author, who, in a work of history, has taken so broad a
view of human events, or given a more just analysis of particular
characters.
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