text:  Scattered through the writings of Tacitus are to be found numerous caustic and profound observations on human nature and the increasing vices and selfishness of a corrupted age: but like the maxims of Rochefoucault it is to individual not general humanity that they refer; and they strike us as so admirably just because they do not describe general causes operating upon society as a body--which often make little impression save on a few reflecting minds--but strike direct to the human heart in a way which comes home to the breast of every individual who reads them