Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 edition. Excerpt: ... artist should not be contented with this only; he should enter into a competition with his original, and endeavour to improve what he is appropriating to his own work. Such imitation is so far from having anything in it of the servility of plagiarism, that it is a perpetual exercise of the mind, a continual invention. Borrowing or stealing with such art and caution, will have a right to the same lenity as was used by the Lacedaemonians; who did not punish theft, but the want of artifice to conceal it. CXLVIII. New Carthage lay on a rugged peninsula jutting out into a fine bay, which forms a commodious harbour. On the land side its walls were protected by a marsh or lagoon, which was periodically overflowed by the sea, so that the place was only accessible by a narrow isthmus between the lagoon and the harbour. On this neck of land Scipio took up his position, entrenching himself in rear, but providing no defence for the front of his camp towards the city. To procrastinate was to court failure; and next morning he prepared for the assault. He addressed his soldiers, and assured them of success; Neptune, he said, had appeared to him in a dream, and promised to befriend the Romans. The men advanced gallantly to the escalade, confident in their young general. But the bastions were high and strong; the garrison made a stout resistance; and before noon Scipio was obliged to withdraw his troops. But he did not relinquish his enterprise. In the afternoon, as he was informed, the water in the lagoon would be unusually low, in consequence of an ebb-tide, assisted by a strong west wind. He, therefore, selected a siege-party of 500 men, who were ordered to carry scaling ladders, dash through the water, and mount the walls unobserved, while the main...
