all due submission to Mr. Melmoth, his new
candidate cannot long hold us in suspense. It appears in the account
of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in which Pliny's uncle lost his
life. A.U.C. 832. A.D. 79, that Pliny was then eighteen years old,
and, as the Dialogue was in 828, he could then be no more than
fourteen; a time of life, when he was neither fit to be admitted to a
learned debate, nor capable of understanding it. Besides this, two
letters to his friend FABIUS are still extant; one in the first book,
epist. 11; the other, book vii. epist. 2. No mention of the Dialogue
occurs in either of those letters, nor in any other part of his works;
a circumstance, which could scarce have happened to a writer so
tenderly anxious about his literary character, if the work in question
had been the production of his part. Brotier, the last, and, it may be
said, the best of all the editors of Tacitus, is of opinion that a
tract, so beautiful and judicious, ought not, without better reasons
than have been as yet assigned, to be adjudged from Tacitus to any
other writer. He relies much on the first edition, which was published
at Venice (1468), containing the last six books of the Annals (the
first six not being then found), the five books of the History, and
the Dialogue, intitled, _Cornelii Taciti Equitis Romani Dialogus de
Oratoribus claris._ There were also in the Vatican, manuscript copies
of the Dialogue _de Oratoribus_. In 1515, when the six first Annals
were found in Germany, a new edition, under the patronage of Leo X.
was published by Beroaldus, carefully collated with the manuscript,
which was afterwards placed in the Florentine Library. Those early
authorities preponderate with Brotier against all modern conjecture;
more especially, since the age of Tacitus agrees with the time of the
Dialogue. He was four years older than his friend Pliny, and, at
eighteen, might properly be allowed by his friends to be of their
party. In two years afterwards (A.U. 830), he married Agricola's
daughter, and he expressly says, (Life of Agricola, sect. ix.) that he
was then a very young man. The arguments, drawn by the several
commentators from the difference of style, Brotier thinks are of no
weight. The style of a young author will naturally differ from what he
has settled by practice at an advanced period of life. This has been
observed in many eminent writers, and in none more than Lipsius
himself. His language, in the outset, was e