Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/509

487 LITERATURE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 487 the more common events connected with them.*" Thucydides him- self designed his work for those who wish to learn the truth of what has happened, and to know what is most for their interest in reference to the similar cases, which, according to the course of human affairs, must again occur ; for such persons Thucydides bequeaths his book as a lasting study. t In this there is an early indication of the tendency to -pragmatical history, in which the chief object was the train- ing of generals and statesmen, — in a word, the practical application of the work ; while the narration of events was regarded as merely a means to an end : such a pragmatical history we shall find in the later ages of ancient literature. § 7. Thucydides would never have been able to attain this truth and clearness in his history had he contented himself with merely setting down the simple testimonies of eye-witnesses, who described what they saw and felt, and had only inserted here and there his own views and reasonings. Its credibility rests mainly on the circumstance, that Thucydides, as well by education as by his natural abilities, was capable of inferring, from the conduct of the persons who figure in his history, the motives which actuated them on every occasion. It is only in particular cases, where he expressly mentions his doubts, that Thucy- dides leaves us in the dark with regard to the motives of the persons whose actions he describes ; and he gives us these motives, not as matter of supposition and conjecture, but as matter of fact. As an honest and conscientious man, he could not have done this unless he had been convinced that these views and considerations, and these alone, had guided the persons in question. Thucydides very seldom delivers his own opinion, as such ; still more rarely does he pronounce sentence on the morality or immorality of a given action. Every person who appears in this history has a strongly marked character, and the more significant his share in the main action, so much the more clearly is he stamped with the mark of individuality ; and though we cannot but admire the skill and power with which Thucydides is able to sum up in a few words the characters of certain individuals, such &B Themistocles, Pericles, Brasidas, Nicias, Alcibiades, yet we must admire Still more the nicety with which he has kept up and carried out all the characters, in every feature of their actions, and of the thoughts and opinions which guided them 4 war in Upper-Italy, between the partisans of Otho and Yitellius. t This is the meaning of the celebrated *t«i*« U ail, I. 22 : it does not mean an everlasting memorial or monument. Thucydides op] - work, which people were to keep by them and read over and dyer againj to a composition which was designed to gratify an audience on one occasion only. + Marccll'inus calls Thucydides hivos r,$oypa.Qr l tr«,i> as Sophocles, among the poets, was also renowned for the rJ<mou7v.
 * For instance, it is extremely difficult to tret an entirely clear conception of the