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L E T T E R H.

imposed on mankind by his power or cnnning, andwhom expérience could not unmaík for a rime, isunmaíked at length : and the honest man, whohas been misundtrstood or defamed, is justifiée! be-fore his story ends. Or if this does not happen, ifthe villain dies with his maík on, in the midst ofapplaufe, and honor and wealth, and power, andif the honest man dies under the famé load of ca-lumny and disgrâce under which helived, drivenperhaps into exile, and expofed to want; yet wesee historical justice executed. the name of onebranded with infamy, and that of the other cele-brated with panegyric to fucceesting âges. Pra>“ cipuum munus annalium reor, ne virtutes silean-« tur; utque pravis dictis factisque ex posteritateíC et infamia metus stt." Thus, accordmg to Ta-citus, and according to truth, from which hisjudgments feldom deviate, the principal dufy ofhistory is to erect a tribunal, like that among theEgyptians, mentioned by Díodorus biCULUS,where men and princes themfelves were tried. andcondemned or acquitted, aster their deaths ; wherethofe who had not been punifhed for their crimes,and thofe who had not been honored for their vir-tues, received a just rétribution. The sentence ispronounced in one cale, as it was in the other,too la te to correct or recompeníe ; but it is pro-nounced in time to rentier thefe examples of généralinstruction to mankind. Thus Cícero, thatlmayquote one instance out of thouiands, and that ím ay do justice to the général character of that gréâtman, whoie particukr Liling I bave c enfui c à ft