Book II - Wilbourhall.org

in.] STYLE OF THUCYDIDES. Ixiiiimagine that Milton began the elaborate Thucydideansentence with which he opens his Areopagiiica without'knowing how he would finish : They, who to statesand governors of the Commonwealth direct theirspeech, high Court of Parliament, or, wanting suchaccess in a private condition, write that which theyforesee may advance the public good, I suppose them,as at the beginning of no mean endeavour, not alittle altered and moved inwardly in their mindssome with doubt of what will be the success, otherswith fear of what will be the censure, some with hope,others with confidence of what they have to speak.'It is just possible that Thucydides at his death left acertain number of blunders in his work, due to mereoversight, which he would have removed had he livedto read it through again. It is an editor's duty toremove them, if they exist ;just as he would correctthe misprints in a new edition of a modem book.But we set out to discover whether the style ofThucydides entitles his work to be considered aclassic.Those who have looked at any work of artwhich conforms to the eternal standard of good tastethat is unaffected by the mutations of time and circumstance—the sculpture from the Parthenon, forinstance,—know that at the first look they thoughtit cold and unsympathetic, and did not see all thebeauties in it which they supposed they ought to see.They went away, perhaps, and returned again to it.If so, they began then to see the meaning of thegroups in the stone ; they seemed to read of a life thatsoared in the bright air high above the level of our