The Reign of Tiberius | Page 9

diligence of innumerable antiquarians, and to
excite the genius and penetration of the philosophic historians of our
own time." Upon a few sentences out of the "Germania"; which relate
to the kings, to the holding of land, to the public assemblies, and to the
army; an imposing structure of English constitutional history has been
erected: our modern historians look upon this treatise with singular
approval; because it shows them, they say, the habits of their own
forefathers in their native settlements. They profess to be enchanted
with all they read; and, in their works, they betray their descent from
the ancestors they admire. Gibbon says, prettily, "Whenever Tacitus
indulges himself in those beautiful episodes, in which he relates some
domestic transaction of the Germans or of the Parthians, his principal
object is to relieve the attention of the reader from an uniform scene of
vice and misery." Whether he succeeds, I must leave my readers to
decide. Tacitus describes the quarrels of the Germans; fought, then with
weapons; now, with words: their gambling, their sloth, their
drunkenness. "Strong beer, a liquor extracted with very little art from
wheat or barley, and corrupted (as it is strongly expressed by Tacitus)
into a certain semblance of wine, was sufficient for the gross purposes
of German debauchery." Tacitus informs us, too, "that they sleep far
into the day; that on rising they take a bath, usually of warm water;

then they eat." To pass an entire day and night in drinking, disgraces no
one: "Dediti somno ciboque," he says; a people handed over to sloth
and gluttony. Some of these customs are now almost obsolete; the baths,
for instance. In others, there has been little alteration since the Age of
Tacitus; and the Germans have adhered, with obstinate fidelity, to their
primitive habits. Tacitus thought less of their capacity, upon the whole,
than it is usual to think now: "The Chatti," he says, "for Germans, have
much intelligence;" "Leur intelligence et leur finesse étonnent, dans des
Germains." But let us forget these "Tedeschi lurchi, non ragionam di
lor;" and pass on to those manly virtues, which Tacitus records: To
abandon your shield, is the basest of crimes, "relicta non bene
parmula;" nor may a man thus disgraced be present at their sacred rites,
nor enter their council; many, indeed, after escaping from battle, have
ended their infamy with the halter. And to more shameful crimes, they
awarded a sterner punishment:
_Behind flock'd wrangling up a piteous crew Greeted of none,
disfeatured and forlorn: Cowards, who were in sloughs interr'd alive;
And round them still the wattled hurdles hung Wherewith they stamp'd
them down, and trod them deep, To hide their shameful memory from
men._
Having now surveyed the compositions in this volume, it is proper that
we should at length devote some of our notice to Gordon himself, and
to his manner of presenting Tacitus. Thomas Gordon was born in
Scotland; the date has not yet been ascertained. He is thought to have
been educated at a northern university, and to have become an
Advocate. Later, he went to London; and taught languages. Two
pamphlets on the Bangorian controversy brought him into notice; and
he wrote many religious and political dissertations. "A Defence of
Primitive Christianity, against the Exhorbitant Claims of Fanatical and
Dissaffected Clergymen;" "Tracts on Religion, and on the Jacobite
Rebellion of '45;" "The Pillars of Priestcraft and Orthodoxy Shaken;"
"A Cordial for Low Spirits;" are the titles of some of his compositions.
In politics, and in theology, he was a republican and free-thinker: he
translated and edited "The Spirit of Ecclesiastics in All Ages;" he was a
contributor to "The Independent Whig;" and in a series of "Cato's
Letters," he discoursed at ease upon his usual topics. The Tacitus was
published in 1728, in two volumes folio: long dissertations are inserted

in either volume; the literature in them excellent, the politics not so
good: the volumes, as well as the several parts of them, are dedicated to
some Royal and many Noble Patrons. Gordon has also turned Sallust
into English: the book was published in 1744, in one handsome quarto;
"with Political Discourses upon that Author and Translations of
Cicero's Four Orations against Cataline." Walpole made Gordon the
first commissioner of wine licences. It is handed down, that Gordon
was a burly person, "large and corpulent." It is believed, that he found
his way into "The Dunciad," and that he is immortalised there among
the "Canaille Écrivante;" the line
_Where Tindal dictates and Silenus snores_,
is taken to be Pope's description of him. Gordon died in 1750; at the
same time as Dr. Middleton, the elegant biographer of Cicero: Lord
Bolingbroke is said to have observed, when the news was told him,
"Then is the best writer in England gone, and the