produce, in those who constantly practise it, a steadying and composing
effect upon the judgment, not of literary works only, but of men and
events in general. They are like persons who have had a very weighty and
impressive experience; they are more truly than others under the empire of
facts, and more independent of the language current among those with whom
they live."

It has been told of Cardinal Newman, that he never liked to pass a single
day, without rendering an English sentence into Latin. To converse with
the Roman authors, to handle their precise and sparing language, is, I can
well believe it, a most wholesome discipline; and the most efficient
remedy against those faults of diffuseness, of obscurity, and of excess,
which are only too common among the writers of our day. It may have been
to this practice, that Cardinal Newman owed something of his clearness,
and of his exquisite simplicity: and for his style, he should be idolised
by every one who has a taste for literature. I have said many things in
praise of the ancient authors: it pleases me, as I finish, to offer my
humble tribute to an author who is quite our own; to one, who in all his
writings has bequeathed us perfect models of chaste, of lucid, and of
melodious prose.

NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD:
_September_ 15, 1890.




THE FIRST SIX BOOKS OF THE ANNALS OF TACITUS:
BEING AN HISTORY OF THE EMPEROR TIBERIUS