us that a _billet-doux_ was found
in her cabinet after her death, or give a hint as if Tarquin really saw
her in the arms of a slave, and that she killed herself not to suffer the
shame of a discovery, such anecdotes would sell very well. Or if, even
by tradition, but better still, if by papers in the Portian family, you
could show some probability that Portia died of dram drinking, you would
oblige the world very much; for you must know, that next to new-invented
characters, we are fond of new lights upon ancient characters; I mean
such lights as show a reputed honest man to have been a concealed knave,
an illustrious hero a pitiful coward, &c. Nay, we are so fond of these
kinds of information as to be pleased sometimes to see a character
cleared from a vice or crime it has been charged with, provided the
person concerned be actually dead. But in this case the evidence must be
authentic, and amount to a demonstration; in the other, a detection is
not necessary; a slight suspicion will do, if it concerns a really good
and great character.

_Plutarch_.--I am the more surprised at what you say of the taste of your
contemporaries, as I met with a Frenchman who assured me that less than a
century ago he had written a much admired "Life of Cyrus," under the name
of Artamenes, in which he ascribed to him far greater actions than those
recorded of him by Xenophon and Herodotus; and that many of the great
heroes of history had been treated in the same manner; that empires were
gained and battles decided by the valour of a single man, imagination
bestowing what nature has denied, and the system of human affairs
rendered impossible.

_Bookseller_.--I assure you those books were very useful to the authors
and their booksellers; and for whose benefit besides should a man write?
These romances were very fashionable and had a great sale: they fell in
luckily with the humour of the age.

_Plutarch_.--Monsieur Scuderi tells me they were written in the times of
vigour and spirit, in the evening of the gallant days of chivalry, which,
though then declining, had left in the hearts of men a warm glow of
courage and heroism; and they were to be called to books as to battle, by
the sound of the trumpet. He says, too, that if writers had not
accommodated themselves to the prejudices of the age, and written of
bloody battles and desperate encounters, their works would have been
esteemed too effeminate an amusement for gentlemen. Histori