24

LETTER II.

impofedon mankind by his power or conning, andwhom experience could not unmade fora time, isunmalked at length: and the honefb man, whohas been mifunderftood or defamed, is juftifbed be-fore his ftory ends. Or if this does not happen, ifthe villain dies with his mafk on, in the midft ofapplaufe, and honor, and wealth, and power, andif the honefb man dies under the fame load of ca-lumny and difgrace under which he lived, drivenperhaps into exile, and expofed to want; yet wefee hiftorical juftice executed, the name of onebranded with infamy, and that of the other cele-brated with panegyric to fucceeding ages. “ Pne-v cipuum munus annalium reor, ne virtutes filean-w tur; ufque pravis didis fadifque ex polleritatecc et infamia metus fit. ” Thus , according to Ta­ citus , and according to truth, from which hisjudgments feldom deviate, the principal duty ofliiltory is to erect a tribunal, like that among theEgyptians , mentioned by Diodokus Siculus,-where men and princes themfelves were tried, andcondemned or acquitted , after their deaths; wherethofe who had not been punifhed for their crimes ,and thofe who had not been honored for their vir-tues , received a juft retribution. The fentence ispronounced in one cafe, as it was in the other,too late to correct or recompenfe ; but it is pro-nounced in time to render thefe examples of generalinftrudion to mankind. Thus Cickro, that I mayquote one inflance out of thoufands, and that Im. y do juftice to the general charader of that greatman, whofe particular failing I have cenfured fo