MR. WILKINS' TRANSLATIONS FROM THUCYDIDES THE speeches in Thucydides occupy

about a fourth part of the whole work, if we exclude the eighth book, in which none are found. It would not be too much to say that, whether we regard their historical value or their utility for purposes of scholarship, they equal in importance all the rest of the book. The great historian gave to his work a modest name, which may be approxi- mately represented by the word " compilation," and the prominent place which he gives to the speeches of the statesmen and generals about whom he writes is in harmony with this conception of his • ofce. Though he does not altogether avoid expressing in his own

• Speeches from Thucydides translated into English. For the use of Students, with an Introduction and Notes. By Henry Musgrave Wilkins, M.A., Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. London: Longmans. 1870.

proper person his opinions on the policy or the morality of the events which he records, it is his general practice to give the reflec-

tive as distinguished from the narrative part of his history in the form of these supposed utterances of the principal actors. Here we find the equivalent for the exposition of motives which the modern historian either founds on a comparison and examination of the facts which he records, or draws from the diplomatic and con- fidential correspondence which reveals the secret workings of politics. Nor is this equivalent by any means an unsatisfactory one. That inferences drawn from the acknowledged facts of history will differ according to the bias of the writers in an almost incredible degree any one may see who, after reading Mr. Grote's History of Greece, will take up the now almost forgotten work of the Tory Mitford. And as for the contents of record-rooms, State papers, the letters of ambassadors, and the like, truth certainly lies somewhere among them, but is surrounded by a labyrinth in which even a skilful explorer may easily lose himself. Mr. Wilkins is, we think, perfectly right when he says :—

" If ancient history, in comparison with modern, suffers in the one point of fullness of detail, it indemnifies itself by the clearness of the light it reflects on the motives and causes of political action. The records of diplomacy, such as the Archives of Sintancas, even in the bands of a Prescott or a Motley, probably afford a less trusty clue to the real history of an epoch than Thucydides derived from the simplicity and transparency of the agencies which evolved the great events of his day,—from the prevalent freedom and publicity of political discussion, and the dependence of action on the will of States, instead of on the secret counsels of ministers and the arbitrary rule of princes."

Our estimate of the historical value of the Speeches must, of

course, depend upon our belief in the accuracy with which they represent the actual utterances of the speakers into whose mouths they are put. Most persons will be inclined to accept as literally true what the historian himself says on this subject. The sub- stance of this is that it was difficult to remember the exact words spoken,—he had found it difficult with regard to such speeches as he had himself heard, and so had those who had reported speeches to him. This being so, he had considered what it was suitable for the speakers on each occasion to have said, always keeping close to the general purport (pc4tn 1.q.kcricaa) of what was actually spoken. The reader, then, may consider that he sees in Thucydides the general line of argument,—just, in fact, what he would himself remember of a speech actually used. One thing, of course, is obvious, viz., that the speeches are very much condensed. The funeral oration of Pericles, which occupies about as much space as any, would take little more than a quarter of an hour to deliver ; and the report of the conference between the Athenian and Melian negotiators, a conference which pro- bably lasted for several hours, is almost equally compressed. Another characteristic which has been acknowledged by all but a few captious critics is the great literary skill, the propriety, and verisimilitude of the speeches as we have them. There is nothing like that amazing discussion on the relative merits of monarchy, oligarchy, and democracy which Herodotus puts into the mouths of the Persian conspirators against Smerdis ; nothing that resembles the uniform flow of sarcasm, invective, and epigram which Tacitus allows to flow from the mouths of all his speakers, whether they be accomplished Roman gentlemen or barbarous Caledonian chiefs. The historical personages of Tacitus form but the thinnest disguise for the writer who speaks through their mouths, but Thucydides—though, as Mr. Wilkins well points out, there is always something that reflects his genius, even when he is not speaking in his own character—presents a suitable variety of thought and, in a less degree, of diction which is due both to his artistic skill and to his historical fidelity. On the subject of his " dramatic consistency." Mr. Wilkins has some excellent remarks. From his introduction, which, we may say at once, is one of the ablest pieces of criticism which we have ever seen, we extract the following

:-

"We look in vain for any trace of Boeotian stolidity in the Theban

reply to the Platasan petitioners for mercy ; yet the truth of the picture is redeemed by the moral apathy and heartlessness of tone characteristic of the men who had played the traitor to their country's cause in the great struggle of the Persian war. In harmony with nature, we 8nd national traits relieved by personal varieties ; Arehidamue, for instance, in a speech which is a living embodiment of Spartan pride, and of the circumspect policy and conservative feeling of his countrymen, repre- sents the higher, Sthenelaidas the lower, type of Lacedsamoniau cha- racter. Satisfied perhaps with a single exhibition of laconic bluntness and coarseness of tone in the person of the Ephor, the historian pointedly disclaims, in the speech of the Spartan deputies at Athens, any affectation of qualities of style or manner which, if they did not baffle the exposition of the case, would have paralyzed its effect on an Athenian ear ; vindicating, at the same time his general consistency by bringing out in full relief the systematic mediocrity of aim, the timid, creeping policy, and cynical disregard of the rightful claims of other

powers, which one of his speakers subsequently describes as an inveterate trait of Spartan diplomacy abroad."

To the scholar these speeches are commended by their diffi- culty—always a eharacteristic of Thucydides—but here displaying itself in the most marked way. His sentences, which are very seldom clear, here reach their utmost of complexity, thanks to the historian's inveterate habit of changing his construction according as it occurs to him to express a new thought, or another aspect of that with which he started. Such passages as the Melian controversy have long been the terror or the attraction of students, according as they dread or envy the labour of working through the endless subtleties of interpretation for which the text affords occasion. Probably there is no book of a text equally well settled —excepting, of course, the New Testament—which presents so many passages about which competent commentators differ so widely.

We have every reason, therefore, to welcome the translation which Mr. Wilkins gives us in this book, a translation which, whether we regard the accuracy and skill of its exegesis or the ease and fluency of the style, is thoroughly admirable, surpassing not only previous translations of the same author, but we may almost say all classical translations in the language. We cannot do better than give the reader a specimen of his skill from the famous funeral oration :—

" On other grounds, too, I claim admiration for our country. Our fondness for art is free from extravagance, nor do our literary tastes make us effeminate ; wealth we use as an opportunity for action, not for ostentatious talk : poverty we think it no disgrace to avow, though we do think it a disgrace not to try to avoid it by industry. Among our countrymen political and social duties are combined in the same men : even our labouring classes have a competent knowledge of politics ; in- deed, we are the only Greeks who regard a man who takes no interest in public affairs, not as one who only minds his own business, but as a man unfit for any business at all. If we, the people at large, cannot originate measures of policy, we can, at any rate, judge of them when proposed : we do not think discussion a prejudice to action, but we do think it a prejudice not to be foretaught by discussion, before entering on the field of action. This leads me to mention another characteristic of ours—the combination of chivalrous daring with the most careful cal- culation of our plans ; whereas, with the rest of the world, daring is but the offspring of ignorance, while reflection leads to hesitation. And surely the palm of magnanimity may well be awarded to those whom the liveliest appreciation of the hardships of war and the pleasures of peace fails to litre from the perilous path of honour to the charms of ease In one word, I deolare that our capital, at large, is the school of Greece : while, if we look to the citizens, individually, I believe every man among us could prove himself personally qualified, without aid from others, to meet exigencies the most varied, with a versatility the most graceful. That this is no mere rhetorical vaunt of the moment, but the real truth, our political power, the offspring of our national character and the tastes I have described, is itself a sufficient proof. Of all existing States, Athens alone eclipses her prestige, when tested by trial : she alone inspires no mortification in the invading foe, when he thinks by whom he is repulsed ; no self-reproach in the subject for submitting to a degrading rule. So far from our supremacy needing attestation, it is written in the clearest characters : it will command the admiration of future ages, as it already does of our own ; we want no Homer to sing our praises, nor any other poet whose verse may charm for the moment, while history will mar the conception he raises of our deeds. No! we shall be admired for having forced every sea and every shore to yield access to our courage, and for the imperishable monuments of the evils heaped on foes and the blessings conferred on friends, which we have, by common effort, reared on every soil. Such, then, is the state for which these men, determined not to be robbed of their country, bravely died on the battle-field : and every one of their survivors will be ready, I am sure, to suffer in the same cause."

Of particular felicities of rendering we might give a long list, but a few must suffice :—

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"Differences of action are grounded on differences of opinion."

"They visited our shores with excellent pretexts for doing wrong, and will leave them with excellent reasons for doing nothing."

"The last to parry will be the first to suffer."

"The undefinable dread which the unseen future inspires."

" Hope, too, and a boundless ambition, the one leading, the other following,—the one devising the enterprise, the other whispering the facility of success,—are the most active agents of ruin ; and, though their influence is invisible, it is more than a match for the terrors of the outward world."

Mr. Wilkins' book is indispensable to those who would get at the whole meaning of this most difficult of authors. We wish that he had not disfigured the preface by an attack on a contemporary Oxford editor, which recalls what we bad hoped were obsolete amenities of classical criticism.