Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18.djvu/230



HE underwritten is copied from Dr. Swift's (dean of St. Patrick's) own handwriting in an edition of Herodotus, by Paul Stephens, the gift of the earl of Clanricard to the library of Winchester college.

"Judicium de Herodoto post longuni tempus relecto. Ctesias mendacissimus Herodotum mendaciorum arguit, exceptis paucissimus, (ut mea fert sententia) omnimodo excusandum. Cæterum diverticulis abundans hic pater historicorum filum narrationis ad tædium abrumpit: unde oritur (ut par est) legentibus confusio, et exindè oblivio. Quin et forsan ipsæ narrationes circumstartiis nimium pro re scatent. Quod ad cætera, hunc scriptorem inter apprimè laudandos censeo, neque Græcis neque Barbaris plus æquo faventem aut iniquum: in orationibus ferè brevem, simplicem, nec nimis frequentem. Neque absunt dogmata e quibus eruditus lector prudentiam tam moralem quam civilem haurire poterit. "J. SWIFT ."

"Julii 6, 1720." SKETCH