" It is a folly for an eminent man to
think of escaping it, and a weakness to be affected with it. All
the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the
world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no
defence against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of concomitant
to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a
Roman triumph.
If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as
much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches
which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they
do not deserve. In a word, the man in a high post is never regarded
with an indifferent eye, but always considered as a friend or an
enemy. For this reason persons in great stations have seldom their
true characters drawn till several years after their deaths. Their
personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they
were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues
can have justice done them. When writers have the least opportunity
of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it.
It is therefore the privilege of posterity to adjust the characters
of illustrious persons, and to set matters right between those
antagonists who by their rivalry for greatness divided a whole age
into factions.
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