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: