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• To His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland.
• Introduction.
• Postscript.
• Political Discourses Upon Sallust.
• Discourse I.: Of Faction and Parties.
• Sect. I.: How Easily the People Are Led Into Faction, and Kept In It, By Their Own Heat and Prejudices, and the Arts of Their Leaders; How Hard They Are to Be Cured; and With What Partiality and Injustice Each Side Treats the Other.
• Sect. II.: How Apt Parties Are to Err In the Choice of Their Leaders. How Little They Regard Truth and Morality, When In Competition With Party. the Terrible Consequences of All This; Worthy Men Decried and Persecuted; Worthless and Wicked Men Popular and
• Sect. III.: Party Infers Public Weakness: Its Devilish Spirit, and Sirange Blindness: What Public Ruin It Threatens: the People Rarely Interested In It; Yet How Eager and Obstinate In It, and Bewitched By It.
• Discourse II.: Of Patriots and Parricides.
• Sect. I.: How Virtue and Vice, Public Services, and Public Crimes, May Be Said to Bring Their Own Rewards.
• Sect. II.: A Suffering Patriot More Happy Than a Successful Parricide: Public Oppressors Always Unhappy.
• Sect. III.: Cautions Against the Arts and Encroachments of Ambition. the Character of a Patriot, and That of a Parricide. How Much It Is the Duty, How Much the Interest, of All Governors to Be Patriots.
• Sect. IV.: How Apt the World Is to Be Deceived With Glare and Outside, to Admire Prosperous Iniquity, and to Slight Merit In Disgrace. Public Spirit the Duty of All Men. the Evils and Folly Attending the Want of It.
• Sect. V.: Considerations Upon Two Distinguished Romans, Cato and Cæsar; One In the Interest of His Country, the Other In His Own Interest: With the Fate and Issue of Cæsar’s Ambition, to Himself and His Race.
• Discourse III.: Of the Resignation of Sylla.
• Sect. I.: His Policy In Resigning; His Motives and Encouragement to Resign.
• Sect. II.: What Measures, and Precautions, He Had Taken For His Security, After His Resignation.
• Discourse IV.: Of the Pride and Ill Conduct of the Patricians, After the Expulsion of Kings.
• Sect. I.: The Roman Commonwealth Unequally Balanced. the Kingly Power, Upon the Expulsion of Tarquin, Engrossed, and Imperiously Exercised, By the Patricians. the Ill Policy of This to Themselves, the Injustice of It to the Plebeians.
• Sect. II.: The Plebeians, Long Oppressed, Obtain a Remedy By Force; But a Remedy Dangerous to the State.
• Discourse V.: Of the Institution and Power of the Popular Tribunes.
• Sect. I.: The Blind Confidence of the People In the Tribunes: the Ambition, and Violent Attempts, of Those Popular Leaders.
• Sect. II.: Reflections On the Plausible Professions, and Dangerous Conduct, of the Gracchi. Public Reformations, How Cautiously to Be Attempted.
• Sect. III.: The Boundless Power Assumed By the Tribunes: With What Boldness and Iniquity They Exercise It. the People Still Their Dupes.
• Discourse VI.: Of Public Corruption; Particularly That of the Romans.
• Sect. I.: The Interest of Virtue, and of the Public, Every Man’s Interest.
• Sect. II.: The Fatal Tendency of Public Corruption. the Public Sometimes Served By Encouraging Private Corruption. Other Means of Corruption, Beside That of Money. Corruption Sometimes Practised By Such Who Rail At It; In Some Instances, By Good Men, Who
• Sect. III.: Some Corruptions In the State to Be Borne, Rather Than Removed By the Introduction of Greater.
• Sect. IV.: How Hard to Prevent Corruption, Where the Means of Corruption Are Found.
• Sect. V.: Venal Men, With What Ill Grace They Complain of Any Ill Conduct, Or Corruption, In Him Who Bought Them: People Once Corrupted, How Abandoned to All Corruption.
• Sect. VI.: Amongst a Corrupt People, the Most Debauched and Desperate Leaders Are the Most Popular.
• Sect. VII.: When the People Are Thoroughly Corrupt, All True Sense of Liberty Is Lost. Outrage and Debauchery Then Pass For Liberty, Defiance of Law For Public Spirit, and Incendiaries For Patriots.
• Sect. VIII.: The Swift Progress of Corruption In the Roman Republic. Its Final Triumph In the Dissolution of the State.
• Discourse VII.: Of the Corruption In the Roman Seats of Justice, and the Oppression In the Provinces.
• Sect. I.: Of the Extreme Difficulty In Procuring Justice At Rome, Against Any Considerable Criminal.
• Sect. II.: The Wonderful Guilt and Enormities of Verres In Sicily, Confidently Committed, From Assurance of Impunity. Cicero’ S Character of the Judges: Their Bold and Constant Venality.
• Sect. III.: The Virtue of the Old Romans, In the Administration of Justice, and Government of Provinces. Their Posterity, and Successors, How Unlike Them. the Wise and Righteous Administration of Cicero, With That of the Provincial Governors In China
• Discourse VIII.: Of Civil Wars.
• Sect. I.: Who the First Authors of Civil War: What Inslames It Most, and Why It Is So Hard to Be Checked.
• Sect. II.: The Chief Power In a Civil War, Vested In the Generals, Yet Little Reverenced By the Soldiers. Both Soldiers and People Grow Hardened and Ungovernable.
• Sect. III.: The Shocking Corruption, and Dissolute Manners, Produced By Civil War; With the Dreadful Barbarities and Devastations Attending It.
• Sect. IV.: The Soldiery, In a Civil War, Only Consider Themselves: What Low Instruments and Causes Serve to Begin and Continue It.
• Sect. V.: How Hard to Put an End to a Civil War. the Tendency of One, to Produce More. How It Sharpens the Spirits of Men, Shocks the Civil Constitution, and Produces Tyranny.
• Sect. VI.: The Evils, and Sudden Changes, Brought By Civil War Upon Particular Families, and Upon a Country In General; With the Fierce Discontents, and Animosities, and Ill Morals, Which It Entails.
• Sect. VII.: A View of the Affecting Horrors, and Calamities, Produced By Civil War; Taken From the History of Greece.
• Discourse IX.: To His Grace Archibald, Duke of Argyll. of the Mutability of Government.
• Sect. I.: Why Free Governments Are More Changeable In Their Frame, Than Such As Are Single and Arbitrary.
• Sect. II.: The Danger to Free Government From Popular Maxims, and Popular Men; With the Advantages It Furnishes Against Itself.
• Sect. III.: The Signal Power of Enthusiasm, and Pious Imposture, In Settling, Changing, Or Perpetuating Government.
• Sect. IV.: The Surprising, Despotic, But Pacific Government, Established By the Jesuits, By the Force of Imposture, In Paraguay.
• Sect. V.: The Inevitable Danger of Trusting Ecclesiastical Persons With Any Worldly Power, Or Any Share In Government.
• Sect. VI.: The Profession of the Missionaries Abroad; How Notoriously Insincere, and Contradictory to Their Tenets and Practices At Home.
• Sect. VII.: The Duration of Tyrannical Single Governments, and the Changeable Nature of Such As Are Popular and Free, Further Considered and Illustrated.
• Sect. VIII.: An Inquiry, Which Is the Most Equal and Perfect Government: Our Own Proved to Be So.
• Postscript.
• The Conspiracy of Cataline
• To His Grace Evelyn, Duke of Kingston.
• The First Oration of Cicero Against Catiline. Spoken In the Senate.
• The Second Oration of Cicero Against Catiline. Addressed to the People.
• The Third Oration of Cicero Against Catiline. Addressed to the People.
• The Fourth Oration of Cicero Against Catiline. Spoken In the Senate.
• The War Against Jugurtha.
• To the Right Honourable the Earl of Cholmondeley.
• The War Against Jugurtha.
• The Speech of M. Æmilius Lepidus, the Consul, Against Sylla.
• The Speech of L. Philippus Against Lepidus.
• Pompey ’s Letter to the Senate.
• The Oration of Licinius, the Tribune: Addressed to the People.
• The Letter Which Mithridates, King of Pontus, Sent to Arsaces, King of Parthia.
• The First Epistle of Sallust to Caius Julius CÆsar: Concerning the Regulation of the Commonwealth.
• The Second Epistle of Sallust to Caius Julius CÆsar: Concerning the Regulation of the Commonwealth.

To the Right Honourable the Earl of CHOLMONDELEY.

My Lord,

WHEN I have told the World, as I now do, that the Whole of this Work lay long under Your Eye and Examination, You will pardon me, for leaving the World to presume, that You did not disapprove it. From the same Motive, a Motive, perhaps, selfish enough, I chearfully inscribe to Your Lordship the following Part of it, the famous Jugurthine War. It is thus that I am encouraged to present the Whole to the Public; and even frankly to leave all my Readers to take, what all my Readers will take, the Liberty of judging for themselves, in spite of all that I, or, even all that Your Lordship can say, in Defence of Your Judgment against Theirs. One Thing I presume confidently to hope, That most of my Readers will like it the better, for being informed, that Your Lordship did not dislike it. You will do me the Justice to own, that where-ever You proposed any Alterations, I was always ready to make them: Had You proposed many more, I fansy both my Readers and I should have found our Account in it.

If I do an injudicious Thing, in thus directing the Thanks of the Reader, where he finds Cause for any, not to myself, but to Your Lordship; by doing it, I still reap one Advantage; I think, a superior Advantage; that my Writings will appear to all my Readers to stand well in Your Opinion; at least, that I myself do. What Writer could desire a better Patent for general Approbation? Perhaps some of my Readers may think, that I am now pleading that Patent. I own I am; and claim the Benefit of it.

Fine Discernment, and just Taste, great Vivacity, much Reading, great Acquaintance with Business, and with Men, all joined to natural Candour, are the great Qualifications for judging of Books and Style; and such Writings as please a Judge so qualified, come before the Public with a competent Recommendation; and claim a Right to please All such Readers as are equally qualified to judge, and equally disposed to be pleased. Let me add, that he who is the quickest at discerning Faults, is often the least forward to expose them; and they who are most forward, are not always the most sagacious. Which of these Two Characters is most to be desired by a Reader, I leave every Reader to determine; and, for his further Inducement, as well as Encouragement, refer him to that of Your Lordship.

I knew a Man, who, at the Age of Forty, was learning Greek, on purpose to translate Thucydides; because he knew, without knowing Greek, that Mr. Hobbs had not translated that Greek Author well. It is probable, that the Person who told him so, if he were in earnest, knew as little as himself, either of Thucydides, or of Mr. Hobbes, who has most excellently translated that celebrated Historian; though his Language, in that Translation, be not so free as in his other Writings; a Fault (if it be one) intirely owing to his adhering to the Manner, as well as to the Sense, of the Original.

Your Lordship knows, that there is nothing so absurd, nothing so spiteful and stupid, as the Censure frequently passed upon Writings. The grossest Ignorance often sets up for Censure; the foulest Language often pronounces it: Yet such Grossness, and such Stupidity, are not more offensive than false Delicacy, and a Mind wrongly turned; nor are they half so ridiculous. A late celebrated and gentle Doctor of Gresham used to give it as his Opinion of Archbishop Tillotson, and Mr. Dryden, (both very excellent Writers of English, besides their other Merit) “That, indeed, they were able, but not delicate Writers:” And then, to explain himself, added, “That they had Strength, but wanted Saftness.” As if Strength excluded Elegance, or Elegance availed any thing without Strength.

My Lord, I venture to assert, what Your Lordship can so well demonstrate, That Sprightliness of Expression is Beauty of Expression. Ease and Force are so far from hurting, that they help and recommend each other; and have the least Influence when apart. So just, so natural, and necessary it is, to join Vigour to Elegance, and Elegance to Vigour! A harsh Style is unpleasing and tiresome: A smooth Style, without Life, is nauseous.

How many Volumes lie cheap and undisturbed in Stalls, without one Blemish in them, either in Fluency or Grammar? The last Qualification, particularly, is the great Boast, and constant Refuge, of dull Men and Pedants; though often wanting in the noblest Writers, Lord Clarendon, Mr. Locke, Mr. Trenchard, and many other great Men, subject to Inaccuracies in Grammar, and even in Spelling; as I have often found in their Manuscripts, some of them still to be seen.

Your Lordship is perfectly acquainted, how much the same Observation holds in public Speeches; some very strong, as well as very elegant, without being very correct; many very elegant, and very correct, but without Force, and without Use.

The great Difficulty in imitating Horace and Tacitus, seems to arise from the Rapidity of their Thoughts and Expression, as well as from their curious Choice of Phrases. For these Two, amongst the several Latin Classics, appear, to me, to have the most glowing Style. There is great Force in that of Sallust; but, I think, a Force not equal to Theirs. There is a great deal of it in Pliny the Elder. It is the great Talent of Demosthenes; and by it he fired and governed his Hearers. In it no Writer, antient or modern, no Poet, no Orator, ever exceeded Shakespear or Milton. There are admirable Strains in Otway and Rowe. Fontenelle is full of lively and striking Images; and no Man more so, than Savil Marquis of Halifax. Mr. Trenchard excels in strong Thoughts, and ardent Expression: And Bishop Atterbury’s Style hath great Elevation and Fire.

It may here, perhaps, look invidious, either to mention, or to omit, Mr. Addison, so justly admired for his beautiful Imagination, and polite Expression; and for his Works, so universally read, so deservedly applauded, many of them inimitable: A glorious Character, and abundant Merit! though, in Tragedy, and some other Subjects, his Style should not be found so powerful as that of some few Others. Whether it be so, or not, Your Lordship can tell.

By saying so much of so many Writers, I had, indeed, almost forgot, that I am writing to Your Lordship, who have read so many, and judge so justly of all. Permit me, however, to add, for the sake of my less-observing Readers, that, to recommend Dignity by Ease, Ease by Dignity, both by Force, is the great Perfection of Speaking and Writing. I could give Instances of each Sort; but, in doing it, I should be tempted to produce one, which, I fear, Your Lordship would not like to see produced, however others might like, and may even expect it. To withdraw myself, therefore, from the pleasing Temptation, I here cease to write. I shall never cease to be, with high and sincere Regard,

My Lord,
Your most Humble,
and most Obedient Servant,

August 30th, 1743.

T. Gordon.