14

L E T T E R II.

be ready to allow , to the study of history ; yet Iwould not vvillingly even seem to sali into theridicule of afcribing to it such extravagant effects,as several hâve doue, frorn Tully down to Ca-saUbon, La MotheleVayee, and other modempédants. When Tully informs us, in the secondbook of his Tuículan difputations, that the hrstScipio Afriganus had always in his hands the\vorks of Xenophon , he advances nothing butwhat is probable and reafcnable. To fay nothingof the retreat of the ten îhoufand, nor of otherparts of Xenuphon’s writings ; the images of virtuereprefented in that admirable picture the Cyropaedia ,were proper to entertain a foui that was fraughtwith virtue, and Cyrus wasworthy to be imitatedby Scipio . So Selim emulated Caesar , whoseCommentaries were tranílated for .his use againstthe customs of the Turks : fo Caesar emulatedAlexander; and Alexander , Achilles. Thereis nothing ridiculous here, except the use that ismadeof this passage by those who quote it. But whatthe famé Tully says, in the fourth book of hisacademical difputations, concerning Lucullus ,seems to me very extraordinary. “ In Asiam factus* imperator venit ; cum effet Roma profectus rei** mílitaris rudis;” (one would be ready to afcribeío fudden a change , and fo vast an improvement,to nothing léss than knowledge infufed by inspira-tion , if we were not aííured in the famé place thatthey were effected by very natural means, by íitclias it is in every man's power to employ ) - 4 partimpercontando a perdis, partim in rébus geílis legendis.”