240 Miscellaneous Observations. he was betrayed by the natural desire of producing an ad- ditional illustration of his favorite thesis. But when a history is written for the sake of a certain theory, there is always a danger that the theory will every now and then become the foundation of the history. A different, but perhaps an equally instructive way of writing a romance on the subject, would have been to sup- pose, that in the intoxication of his military success Paches had given way to a strong temptation, and had been led to tarnish the honour of a glorious life by a base and cruel murder: that he returned to Athens to receive the reward of his services, but was followed by the unhappy women whose peace he had destroyed : that in the presence of the assembled people they disclosed and proved his guilt: and that when, instead of congratulation and applause, he heard nothing but the accents of horror and indignation from all around him, shame and remorse and the avenging Furies stung him to madness, and he turned his victorious sword against his own breast. This would indeed have been a romantic adventure for an Athenian, or any other court of justice. Yet it must be remembered that the circumstance which sounds most ro- mantic in it, is that which belongs equally to the other version of the story ; and I will only add, that if the latter be the true one, if an Athenian officer in the Peloponnesian war was unable to support a verdict given against him on a charge of peculation, and was excited by it to fall on his own sword, the case affords a new illustration of a common remark, that things sometimes happen in the world, which would be thought too improbable for a romance. C. T.
