ABRIDGMENTS.
Of all the labours of the pen, that of abridging well is possibly the most difficult. It requires more than a common discernment to judge of the circumstances the suppression of which makes an abridgment obscure or otherwise. Justin abridged with little judgment; and I am certain that Trogus Pom-peius would have exclaimed a thousand times against him, had he known in what a sad condition his works have been placed by his labours. Justin, and such as resemble him, never consider that abridgments should resemble pigmies, who have all the parts of
a perfect human body, although each of them in miniature. Contract the parts of a narrative in an abridgment, but do not omit any.—Art.AchillesandArsinoe.