c. 1. Athen 1. 3. Athenaeus praises him for the Charms of his Discourse His Subject is great and vast for it compasses Nations Kingdoms Empires the Affairs of Europe and Asia He is not very exact in what he says because he contains too much matter but I find in him a sincerity which is not very common because he uses Greeks and Barbarians his own Countreymen and Strangers without any shew of Partiality * Platarch de malign Herod I find Plutarch deals with him too rigorously when he makes him to have an ill meaning in most part of his Conjectures but it is only Envy and Revenge makes him use him so because he used ill his Countrey of Boeotia in his History * Laudatur ab omnibus ut rerum explicator sincerus gravis hujus nemo neque verborum neque sententiarum gravitatem imitatur Cic. de opt Orar. Thucydides is exact in his way of writing faithful in things he relates sincere and not sway'd by Interest he has Greatness Nobleness Majesty in his Style he is always strict but his strictness has nothing but what is great in it The Truth is that his Subject is lesser and more limited than that of Herodotus It is only through a Spirit of Partiality that Dionysius Halicarnassaeus prefers Herodotus before Thucydides the first being his Countreyman For my own part I find him the most accomplish'd Historian among the Greeks Xenophon is pure in his Language Natural agreeable in his Composition his Mind is easie rich full of a deep knowledge a clear imagination a just turn but he is neither great nor elevated Good Manners are not always well observ'd in his History where he makes ignorant and brutish People speak like Philosophers Cicero tells us that Scipio could not part with him when once he had him in his hands Longinus gives it as his Character That he conceiv'd things happily After all is done he is a well-accomplished Historian and it was by the reading of his History that Scipio and Lucullus became so great Captains Polybius discourses well he is provided with good and fine Materials but he does not manage them so well as the others I spoke of but now He ought for all that to be prais'd for the Idea Brutus had of him who at the height of his Misfortunes did pass whole Nights in the reading and studying of them His Design is not so much to write an History as an Instruction how to govern a Countrey as he himself says at the end of his First Book and he leaves there in a manner the Character of an Historian which obliges him to make a kind of an Apology in the beginning of the Ninth Book about his way of writing History his Style is much neglected Dionysius Halycarnassaeus shews in his Book of Roman Antiquities a deep Sense Learning and Conduct which is not common he is exact diligent and judicious truer than Livy and of great weight But to conclude he is very tedious in his Speeches Diodorus Siculus is a man of great Character but he contains too many things pretending to make an Abridgement of Philistus of Timaeus of Callisthenes of Theopompus and others Philo and Josephus are Authors of an extraordinary Eloquence They were both Jews who had too great a desire to please Pagans by accommodating themselves like Slaves to their Humour and Taste Arrian does but Copy Xenophon and is an affected Imitator of his ways he has made Seven Books of the Conquests of Alexander as Xenophon did of Cyrus's Appianus dabbl'd in all the Greek Historians and with that hodge-podge has made to himself a Style which resembles no bodies Scaliger calls him the Thief of Histories he took the best of his Book out of Plutarch's but after all there is in him a vast deal of matter Dio Cassius crack'd his Credit with almost every body because of the extraordinary things which he writes without any distinction for instead of cleaving strictly to the Truth he runs from the very appearance of it in that place of the 66 th Book of his History where he says That Vespasian cur'd a blind man by spitting upon his Eyes Procopius is exact in what he says because he accompanied Bellisarius in the Wars and was an Eye-witness of his great Actions but he is too dry in his History of Persia which looks more like a Journal than History He satisfied his own Fancy by writing that private History but his Modesty was great in his suppressing it for the thing which he took pains to hide during his Life was made publick after his Death wherein he is not altogether inexcusable Most part of those who have written the Histary of Byzantium either took Copies one by another as Agathias Cedrenus John Curopalatus or are not very exact and they come nothing near the Dignity the Nobleness the Distinguishing and the Faithfulness of the Ancient Greeks * Subtilissimus brevitatis artifex Salustius proprietatum in verbis retinentissimus Gell. Amongst the Latins Salust looks great exact of an admirable Judgment No body ever express'd the sensible exact severe Style of Thucydides better than he †Salustius homo nequam sed gravissimus alienae â—…uxuriae objurgator Lact. l. 2. de fals Rel. He is stiff sometimes in his Expressions but not insipid his being so short makes him less clear His Method is good and he gives weight to every thing he says His Thoughts are always fine thô his Manners be bad declaring always in Commendation of Virtue and Detestation of Vice. I find him a little too peevish with his Countrey and ill affected to his Neighbour but for all that he is a very great man. Caesar had the finest way of expressing himself that ever was Pedants are in the right in admiring him for the inimitable purity of his Style but I still admire him the more for the exactness of his Sense no body having ever written better He is almost the only Author that is free from Impertinencies He speaks of himself but as an indifferent body and nothing disagrees in the wise Character he has taken It is true that he is not altogether an Historian but it is true too that he is a fine Model to write History by It is a great Honour for that incomparable Author that Henry the Fourth of France and Lewis the Fourteenth have busied themselves in the translating of his History of the Gaules Livy is the most accomplish'd of all because he has all the great Parts of an Historian the Imagination fine the Expression noble an exact Sense with an admirable Eloquence None but great Idea's come in his Mind he fills the Imagination of his Readers with what he says that way he gains People's Hearts and moves their Souls and he has the greatest Genius for History and is one of the greatest Masters of Eloquence that ever was * In Tito Livio putat inesse Pollio quandam Patavinitatem Fab. l. 8. c. 1. I do not
Licensed October the 9 th 1688. Rob. Midgley THE Modest Critick OR REMARKS Upon the most Eminent HISTORIANS Antient and Modern With Useful Cautions and Instructions as well for Writing as Reading HISTORY Wherein the Sense of the Greatest Men on this Subject is faithfully Abridged By one of the Society of the Port-Royal LONDON Printed for John Barnes at the Sign of the Bear and Ragged Staff in Green-Street near Leicester-Square 1689. THE PREFACE IT is as unusual for a Book to be Publish'd without a Preface as for a man to go abroad without a Cravat Something therefore must be said for Fashion sake But because I am no way addicted to Garb and Dress what I say shall be plain and short I have liv'd long enough in the World to know that a man who ventures to make any Work of his own Publick puts himself into Extream Danger of being attack'd on every side and by all sort of People as well Learned as Ignorant and these are the worst of the two for a reasonable man may be satisfied with Reason when a Fool will never be convinc'd of his Error This has always made me unwilling to expose any thing of my own But having receiv'd in the perusing of this little Book both Pleasure and Profit I thought it would be but matter of Gratitude in me to communicate it to the Publick The Press having of late been prostituted to the Dull and Impertinent it will be no great Credit for me to run in the Herd much less to bring up the Rear of them that are in Print It is not therefore from Vanity or the fond imagination of raising a Character that I send this little Treatise abroad but meerly that others who have the same Notions with my self may receive from it the same satisfaction that I have done It is not now as heretofore when he that could write or read his Name was thought therefore fit to be a Parish-Clerk Fortunatus and Valentine and Orson c. are no longer the Entertainment of Men. Nay so ripe and pretending is the present Age that Women pass their time in the best and solidest Histories But tho' many read yet all do not read with Judgment and Observation Therefore they may learn in reading this Book instructions how to read and write too Now to do my self some Right I must ingeniously confess there are some Passages about which I am not fully satisfied as about the Spartiates and Lacedemonians tho' the Author has Polybius on his side He has not done justice to the World in not mentioning some late Historians I mean amongst the rest Thuanus and Sleidan who deserve not to be pass'd over in silence It is not to be wondred that one of the Romish Church should so sharply censure the incomparable Fra Paolo whose Judgment and Learning carried him beyond their Arguments and whose Honesty was above their Calumny But the History of the Council of Trent is sufficient to maintain that Author's Credit against all their Suggestions As for the King of France's busying himself about the Translating of Caesar's Commentaries I must beg the Author's Pardon if I cannot believe him That Monarch having business enough of his own without medling with Books And I am confident had He never done more than Translating of that Book He had never had the Name of Louis Le Grand But for these and other such Faults I will leave every Reader to take the same Liberty towards him that he has taken with others To say the Truth He that sets up for a Critick offers a Challenge to the whole World Therefore not to be remark'd upon is the last Affront that can be put upon him But I forget the Complaint I made of other People's scribling while I thus far continue my own Reader accept this with the same Mind that I offer it And so Farewel TO THE READER I Have neither so good an Opinion of this Work nor of my self as to prefix my Name to it it being but a rough Draught of the Manner of writing History and that made upon a cursory reading of History A Natural Diffidence I have of my self makes me fear lest Impatience or Precipitation has snatch'd out of my hands what could never remain too long with me to render it self any way supportable But that I may not disgust the Publick too much by representing the Present I here make it too mean and cheap I shall ingenuously confess That this Work is a kind of Abridgment of what has been written on that Subject by the greatest Men of the first and of the late Ages That it is an Extract of what is most reasonable in Dionysius Halycarnassaeus in his Answer to Pompey who ask'd his Opinion of the Greek Historians and his Censure upon their different Characters That it is a Copy of what Lucian has thought most judicious in that Admirable Treatise he made of the Manner of Writing HISTORY In fine That those Opinions I give in this Discourse are not so much my own as those of Francesco Patrici in his Dialogues of Gyrolamo Marucci Agostino Mascardi of Paolo Beni Lewis Cabrera and others Spanish and Italian Moderns which have handled this Argument But as perhaps I have spoil'd their Thoughts by adding my own I declare That I do not make it a Point of Honour to my self to perswade my Readers of it a Cum judicium meum ostendere suam legentibus relinquam Fab. l. 9. c. 4. I do not impose Laws upon them having neither Jurisdiction nor Authority to do so they are at the most but Advices which every one may follow at his own Discretion But being far from pretending to instruct any body by a Title which shall seem vain to Modest Persons I would willingly have all the World believe that I am proud of receiving any Instruction from others For if I have not Wit and Learning sufficient to be as Exact as so Important a Design requires I have Judgement enough to be fearful of my self But that I may not take a False Modesty upon me by suppressing my Name I confess that in a manner I conceal my self out of Pride For I am too proud to shew my self being sensible that in an Age so Learned and so full of Criticks as ours is a Man humbles himself whenever he takes up the Name of an Author In effect their Rigour is so great that no Merit how well soever established can escape them And it looks like a kind of Presumption in a Man to commit himself openly to the Judgement of the Publick which daily becomes more rigorous and in an Age where Censure spares no body It is also true That there is so great a Wisdom in not endeavouring to seem capable and that there is so much good Sense shew'd in being Modest that I could willingly have chosen to add in those places where I give my Opinion the May be of Aristotle and the It seems of Tully to be less
Book Of the siege of Tyre and of a great many others where it appears an affectation of Eloquence little becomming the Gravity of History which can bear nothing that is affected Indeed that purity of Elocution so necessary to History ought to be supported by a great deal of Sense For n Non debet quisquam ubi maxima rerum momenta versantur sollicitus esse de verbis Fab. l. 8. c. 3. Ut monilibus margaritis quae sunt Ornamenta Foeminarum deformantur Viri nec habitus triumphalis quo nihil augustius foeminas decer Fab. l. 11. c. 1. Ornatus omnis non tam sua quam rei cui adhibetur conditione constat ibid. nothing is more fulsome than Eloquence when empty of things and which says nothing It happens that sometimes purity of Discourse too much studied in great Subjects diminishes its greatness as it appears in the History of the Indies by Maffaeus and in the wars of Flanders by Cardinal Bentivoglio The one and the other have studied too much how to please by the Politeness of the discourse not remembring that Beautys that are sprucely attir'd smite least and that the finest ornaments disguise a thing whensoever they are excessive and disproportionate V. To write with Simplicity You are also obliged to write with simplicity to avoid that Pompous and that affected Air which are both so contrary to that Character which is requir'd in History because whatsoever is great ceases to be so as soon as it is strip'd of that simplicity and that which is pure and great too receives an accession of greatness and becomes lofty o Si oratio perderet gratiam simplicis inaffectati coloris perderet fidem Fab. l. 9. c. 4. Nothing also instructs and gets the publick applause more than that simplicity of Style so beloved of the Ancients and so little known by the Moderns All that which is exaggerated seems false and Nature which you ought to have for your object delights not in impertinent flourishes But that you may exactly understand that simplicity which is so necessary to a great Style you must consider that there are three sorts of it A simplicity in words as that of Caesar a simplicity in the Thoughts as that of Salust a simplicity in the Design as that of Thucydides so much valued by p In judicio de Thucydide Dionysius Halicarnassaeus The Moderns which have come the nearest to that Character are amongst the French Phillip de Commines Guichardin amongst the Italians Buchanan in Scotland Mariana amongst the Spaniards the greatest part of the rest seek only to maintain themselves by the Purity Politeness and other Ornaments of Discourse when they have not a Spirit great enough to attain that simplicity and they disguise the Truth when they want strength to shew it naked Happy is the Man that can attain it when he makes writing his Business those that are ignorant may understand it at the same time that the intelligent are charm'd with it But nothing is harder to get than that plain and natural way which makes the simplicity of the Style A Genius extraordinary is requir'd to express things clearly without dropping into a low and cold style For at the same time that you endeavour after simplicity you ought to dread nothing more than flatness What is then that admirable simplicity which is the highest perfection of a great work and wherein do's it consist q Homerus brevem quidem cum animi jucunditate propriam carentem superfluis eloquentiam Menelao dedit quae sunt virtutes generls primi Fab. l. 12. c. 10. It is to make use only of the most common and fittest words but they must always be full of a great sense as that Prince do's to whom Homer gives a brief Eloquence agreeable proper without superfluity r Exponere simpliciter â—…ne ulla Exornatione Cic. l. 2. de Invent. It is to think and speak just what you have to say and to think without giving too much quickness to your expression as Strada do's and without giving too great a brightness to your thoughts as Grotius did It is to have your Sentiments ordinary and natural not making so many Arguments and Reflections as Davila in his History of the Troubles for as soon as you argue so much it is no more Nature that speak's 't is Art and Study and those discourses so labour'd smell of the Schools s Non dicere ornatius quam simplex ratio veritatis ferat Cic. l. 1. de Orat. It is not to mix more Ornament in your discourse than the modesty of the truth can bear It is to express that natural and free air of t Xenophontis illam sucunditatem inaffectatam quam nulla affectatio consequi possit upsae sermonen Gratiae finxisse videantur Fab. l. 10. c. i. Xenophon which no imaginable affectation can attain It is in fine to possess that marvellous talent of paring off the superfluous part of the Discourse of which Phocian was so excellent a master of whom simple as he was Demosthenes was wont to say when he saw him ascend the Tribunal as his Antagonist u Plutarch Here 's the sword which is going to cut off all the superfluity of my words That you may well establish that Character which besides a great store of Wisdom and good Sense requires much exercise and a great deal of Meditation you must avoid the use of those Authors whose imagination is too full that you may not fall in that torrent of false thoughts boundless expressions and those confusions which have but a glance of good sense into which you will easily fall if you have not an exact Sense and an equal Spirit You must propose to your self no other rule of that manner of writing but the Ancients And among those you must make choice of them which have most of this simplicity x 〈…〉 Hermogenes propounds Theocritus and Anacreon for great Patterns of it and indeed nothing is opener and freer than what they have writ Herodotus seems to Longinus too bold Dionysius Halicarnassaeus finds that Thucydides thô a great Master of that Simplicity loads some of his Relations with too much of the matter of fact Xenophon and Polybius moralize too much and often hinder the stream of History by their Reflections Diodorus Siculus mixes too much Learning in his Discourses Plutarch may go for a great original of that simplicity we look after for every thing he says relishes of it Livy seems not to me more agreeable by all his other great qualities than by that The stream of his History is like that of a great River which floweth majestically as that of Tacitus resembles a deep and swelling River subject to overflowings he never keeps a tenour in his thoughts but often is immoderate in his expressions for want of this simplicity Mariana is one of the most accomplish't among the modern Historians because he regards it most
Dexterity when well chosen Great Circumstances give some admiration and small ones pleasure provided they are well chosen and not exaggerated But thô an Action which is not exactly reported makes no impression you must nevertheless shun those Expressions of low and frivolous Particulars which make a Subject worse for you become childish and even ridiculous by sticking too close to little things As that impertinent Historian n Luc. in Conser Hist Lucian speaks of who gives a very particular Description of the Parthian's Veste and of the Roman Emperour's Shield when he describes the Fight Others adds he not thinking of Essential things lose time in things not useful as he who after having spoke by the by a word or two of the Battel which made then the Subject of his Discourse stops to relate the Adventures of a Moorish Knight the most extravagant in the World. So Procopius in his secret History forgets the Circumstances necessary and rehearses what is needless You must then in the recital of any Action of Consequence know well how to lay the Circumstances which are to make the thing plain and to sustain it in its light by distinguishing the Essential from that which is not so The most accomplisht pattern we have in History of a great Action told in all the Circumstances capable of giving it weight and splendor is Hannibal's March into Italy as it is written in the 21 st Book of the Annals of Livy It is in my judgment the most perfect part of his History and there are few things of that strength in Antiquity A greater design never enter'd into a more extraordinary mind and nothing was ever accomplish't more cleverly The Argument was Hannibal's coming out of Africa marching through Spain over the Pyrenean Hills crossing the Rhone at his very mouth a River vast and swift whose Banks were cover'd with so many Enemies his opening himself a way through the Alpes where no man had ever pass'd before travelling upon Precipices disputing at every step with People that lay in Ambuscadoes in continual Filings amidst the Snow Ice Rain Torrents defying Storms and Thunder making War with Heaven Earth and all the Elements drawing after him an Army of a hundred thousand Men of different Nations and all jealous of a General whose Courage they were not able to imitate The Souldiers Minds were possest with fear Hannibal alone remains unshaken the danger which encompasses him abates the Courage of all the Army but never disturbs his Mind All is drawn in a Relation of horrid Circumstances in every word of that Historian danger is exprest never Picture was better finish'd in History touch'd with livelier Colours and with bolder strokes Nothing also is better adorned with Circumstances in o Tacit. l. 2. Annal. Tacitus than that Feast the Empress Messalina made to shew her Love to Silius her Gallant All the Ceremonies appear'd as thô it had been Vintage-time that Season favouring the Feast Mirth Pleasure frolick and lascivious Debauchery are all express'd with the fineness of an exquisite Eloquence and the Relation thereof is particulariz'd succinctly and sensibly and made throughout in such a manner as speaks Life and Spirit and nothing is more judiciously plac'd rendring by this lively representation Messalina's Death which follows after more Tragical and full of Horror In fine there are happy Circumstances which give an agreeableness every where where they are apply'd but you must understand them well to know where they must be apply'd Things become often greater by their Circumstances than they do by themselves Let us then look into those Circumstances which can both instruct and please and keep the Reader from doazing Let us imitate Davila who is so taking by the Art he has duly to cloath what he says with proper Circumstances yet great Relations weary the Spirits so let us make a judicious distinction of the Circumstances Necessary and of Importance from those that are not so Let us consult Lucian and his Discourse upon History he is a great Master in that But to make a compleat Narration we must joyn to the Circumstances of its things the Motives of its Actions for Motives well touch'd make a Narration as curious as the Circumstances make it likely XV. The Motives To tell Men's Actions without speaking of their Motives cannot properly be called to write History It is just like a Gazette where the Author contents himself barely to report the Events of things without going up to their Spring As Caesar who gives meerly his Marches and his Encampings without telling their Motives every thing in his Narration being too plain and open thô 't is true he writes only Memoirs It is then that curious rehearsing of Motives which cause Men to Act by which alone History it self becomes delicate and sustains it self chiefly in important Affairs To say things as they are pass'd without going to their beginning is properly to stop at the outward part of Things Reason will have it says Cicero p Rerum ratio vult ut quoniam in rebus magnis confilia primum deinde acta postea eventus expectantur in rebus gestis declarari non solum quid actum aut dictum sit sed quomodo cum de eventu dicatur ut causae explicentur omnes c. l. 2. de Orat. that as in Affairs the Design precedes the Execution The Historian gives an Account not only of Events but also of Causes and that in relating what has been done he explains how and for what Reason it was done Tacitus says almost the same thing that it is important for History not only to tell the Events of things but to discover the Ground and Principles of them and to touch upon the Motives thereof q Ut non modo casus eventusque rerum sed ratio etiam causaque noscantur 14. Ann. by this an Historian distinguishes himself and makes himself considerable and nothing is more pleasing in a Narration than the Explication of what is secret and of Importance in those Peoples Designs and Intentions whose Actions it relates and History having nothing more commendable than this all the little Historians even of the smallest Credit have endeavoured to excell in that way For nothing strikes more upon the Curiosity of men than this by which they are made to discern what is more concealed in mens Minds that is to say the secret motions which make them act even in their ordinary Undertakings It is only by going up to the Cause that you will see the minds of those you speak of that you 'll discover the Spirit which makes them act what they are capable of and that you 'll find the Truth by searching deeply into their Intentions But with how many Falshoods are Histories fill'd upon this fair Pretext And into how many Errors do unjust false and interrested Historians daily fall which abandon themselves to their Conjectures distribute their own Imaginations to the Publick to express the Designs
nobleness to the Discourse and there is a boldness of Style provided it be wise and judicious which is admitted in places that want Life But for Figures to be well applied be sure they be modest and familiar not taking the flights of Poetry or high Eloquence Let them not be says Lucian too bright nor too elaborate unless in the Description of a Battel or in a Speech where an Historian may spread the Sails of his Eloquence without soaring too high XVII The Passions The Passions also make one of the great Ornaments of the Narration when they are on purpose and that they are touch't judiciously The Truth is that they do not require that heat which ought to accompany the Stage one must give them another Air for they are not to be acted but rehearsed An Historian may make his Discourse passionate but he ought not to be passionate himself Therefore let him study men to the bottom that he may lay open in his own mind the most private motions Passion is capable of raising there that he may express its trouble and disorder and that well applied is very agreeable in a Narration Thucydides has treated that part better than Herodotus for he is more eloquent and more pathetick as y Dionys Halicar Epist ad Pompei de Virt. Serm. Dionysius Halycarnassaeus says thô Herodotus has sometimes more life Hermogenes propounds an admirable Model of a tender affectionate and passionate Narration in the Death of Panthaea Queen of Susiana which is written in the Seventh Book of Xenophon's Cyropoedia It is one of the finest places in that Author All is said in a touching Strain Photius assures us that Josephus has a great Art in his Discourse to move the Soul by the Passions z Affectus eos praecipue qui commendavit Quintillian affirms that dulciores sunt nemo Historicorum Livio magis Fab. l. 10. c. 1. Livy of all Historians has most signaliz'd himself by those tender and delicate ways whereby he has entertain'd the sweetest motions of the Soul Affectus eos praecipue qui dulciores sunt nemo Historicorum Livio magis commendavit Fabius l. 10. c. 1. The Rape of the Sabins those tender motions they shew'd at that time to take the Arms out of the hands of the Romans their Husbands and of the Sabins their Fathers the Death of Lucretia Her Body exposed to Publick View to move the People to rebell against the Tarquins Vetturia at her Son Cariolanus's Feet to appease his Fury when he came to besiege Rome Virginia stabb'd by her Father the Consternation of Rome after the Battel of Cannae and a thousand other such things touch't in his History by the most tender Expressions imaginable are fine Examples thereof And it is in that Historian you ought to study the way of treating Passions as they ought to be in History for he animates himself only in the places where heat is requisite Tacitus does not mind how to manage his heat he is always passionate and even those Colours he uses are always too strong and because he is still too full in some things and that he does not Copy after Nature he does not move so much I say nothing of the other Historians the greatest number of whom have not understood the Passions nor the way they ought to be represented in It is a particular kind of Rhetorick which requires a great Sense and a very exact knowledge of Morality But if we intend to please let us beware of those Dry Narrations which are void of the moving stroaks which Nature requires XVIII The Descriptions That Affectation which appears in most Historians in making Descriptions has in a manner run down its use amongst judicious people Nothing indeed is more childish than a Description too much polish'd in a serious History Young Authors run head-long into it without distinction You cannot be too circumspect in the use thereof The Principle which is observable in it is That you must use it no more than is necessary to illustrate those things the knowledge whereof is essential to what you write Such is the Description of the Isle of Capraea lib. 4. Annal. Tacit. For it denotes the Reason Tyberius had to retire thither toward the latter end of his life which renders it necessary and being short eloquent and polish'd without any Superfluity one may say that it is as it ought to be The Description a Sal. in Bello Jugurt Salust made of the place where Jugurtha was defeated by Metellus serves to make one know the Fight better You may see there the Vertue of the Roman as well as the Experience of the Numidian King by the advantage he had taken in possessing himself of the Hills and all the recital of the Battel is better understood by that draught of the place which the Historian lays before your Eyes as well as the Picture of that place where Hannibal fought Minucius Book 22. Annal. Livii which is a place well touch'd Descriptions might again be allow'd in a great History to make the Narration more pleasing provided they be fitted well to the purpose and free from that superfluity which commonly accompanies them when given by young Historians The desire they have to shew their Parts that way makes them fall in a pittiful childishness Nay b Luc. de Hist conser Lucian finds fault with the too long Description which Thucidides makes of the Plague of Athens in the Second Book of his History and he is perhaps in the right for that Author thô wise runs into a Narration of that Disease too particular But that Critick has more reason when he complains of that impertinent Historian of his Time who took so much delight in making great Descriptions of Mountains of Cities of Battels which he says out-do in Coldness all the Snows and all the Ice of the North. And indeed nothing is colder than a description which is too much studied The Machines of War us'd by Caesar are describ'd in his Commentaries with a way of Circumstances too great for so mecanick a matter as that is That Commander whose Reputation in the knowledge of War is establish'd seems to have a desire to be thought also a good Engineer it looks too much affected for a man so judicious The Description of Africa in the War of Jugurtha in Salust is too full of Circumstances There was no need of so many to mark the Limits of the Kingdoms of Atherbal and Jugurtha which were then in dispute What need was there to describe all that Countrey and to make a distinction of the Manners of the People with so much particularity Descriptions must then be useful exact short elegant never studied having no harshness in them nor a vain desire of making your Wit appear more than your Subject that your Descriptions may look well as those of Livy do 't were fit you should make him your Pattern XIX Speeches I find the Masters Opinions very much divided
in that Point Herodotus Thucydides and Xenophon have signaliz'd themselves chiefly by their Speeches Thucydides did better than any of them the Speeches of the chiefest Actors in his History Pericles Nicias Alcibiades Archidamus and of all the Nations that speak by Deputies are excellent Lessons for Speakers of all Ages and Demosthenes formed himself chiefly in that School Polybius uses more Formalities he doth not let Scipio speak so much thô he has reason to do it having always been his Companion in War c In Sermonibus effingendis Herodotus Thucydides Xenophon Salustius nimii videntur causa est cur Caesar Commentarios scripsit ut id omitteret in quo alii laborant Bisciol l. 7. hor. subcess Caesar is still more sparing for he makes hardly any Speeches at all pretending they are against the Truth of History and taking rather the part of writing bare Memories that he may seem plainer in his Discourse Dionysius Halycarnassaeus causes Brutus to make a long Exhortation upon the Death of Lucretia that so he might excite the People to Revenge and that Oration which he makes Valerius to speak upon the fittest form of Government in a State Book 7. of his History is very tedious Josephus Appian Dio Cassius and Procopius are great Discoursers as well as Thucydides and Xenophon which took that Idea of speaking out of Homer And in truth if we examine the grounds of those Discourses and above all of those that are made by Captains to encourage the Soldiers to fight we shall find but little likelihood in them d Trogus reprehendit in Livio Salustio quod Conciones Orationes operi suo inserendo historiae modum excesserint Just l. 38. Trogus reproaches Salust and Livy with a great deal of reason for the immoderate excess of Speeches in their Histories And indeed all those Discourses they attribute to great men have but a false look for out of what Memoires could they have taken them Besides a Warrier don't speak like one that makes it his business to speak in publick e Livius Thucydides interserunt Conciones quae nunquam abiis quibus sunt attributae cognitae fuerunt Scal. Poet. l. 1. So when Pericles in Thucydides made an Oration in praise of his Soldiers that had been defeated and kill'd by the Boeotians His Speech is feigned as well as that which Catiline in Salust makes to the Conspirators which in all probability was secret and not much studied This is partly what f Ben. l. 2. de Hist Beny says to improve that mistake Thucydides who was judicious took care of that in his last Books where he makes fewer Speeches than in the first But it is a Natural Lesson for we never write an History but we bring in those that have a share in it to make them speak because nothing gives more vigour to a Narration which is apt to grow cold by a Discourse too much polished There is then a medium to be taken A small Discourse made on purpose in an History by one that bears a Character fit to make it being also well suited to the Person and Subject under hand may please being put in its due place But those formal Speeches at the Head of an Army ready to engage and those Deliberations of a tedious prolixity which are made upon those businesses that are spoken of are almost out of fashion in good Histories And the wisest chuse to make their Heroe speak things in few words without engaging themselves to say set Speeches as Livy in the beginning of his History has done by the Embassadors which Romulus sent to his Neighbours The most part of Salust's Speeches are very fine but never to the purpose for nothing is finer than Marius's Speech It is the best Moral Lecture in the World upon Nobility all is reasonable in it and Antiquity has few of that Strength to persuade People to embrace Vertue but it is set in a wrong place and the way that he makes Cato and Caesar give their Opinion in the Senate how great soever it be is not made proportionable to the rest of his History Of that number is the long Discourse Dio makes in the 56 th Book of his History in praise of Marriage and of a Batchelor's Life But on the contrary there is nothing firmer than Tyberius's Speech upon the Reformation of Luxury Tacit. l. 3. Annal. No Historian ever made a Prince speak with more Dignity The Speeches of Agrippa and of Moecenas to Augustus wherein the one advises him to quit the Empire and the other to keep it are extream fine in Dio Cassius but they are so long that they take up all the 52 d Book In fine to finish this Article I am for g De Thucydide Orationes quas interposuit laudare soleo sed imitari neque possim si velim neque velim si possim Cic. declar Orat. Cicero's Advice who speaking of the Discourses of Thucidides says wisely I find them very fine and I could not do so well if I would nor would I do it if I could which is all that can be well said upon that Subject For in fine Speakers are always subject to be tedious And Boccalinus is very pleasant who condemns an Old Man to the Pennance of reading one of Guichardin's Speeches because he had read a Madrigall with his Spectacles upon Mount Parnassus XX. The Characters of Persons Pictures are a great Embellishment in History when well drawn but Romances have spoil'd that way for we make too many and those such as do not well resemble We lose time in describing after our own Fancy the Air of the Person but this is not the thing h Explicentur hominum ipsorum non solum res gestae sed vita ac natura Cic. l. 2. de Orat. For what does it signifie to me to know whether Hannibal had good Teeth provided that his Historian shew me the greatness of his Genius that he shew me a bold and an active Spirit vast Thoughts a stout Heart and all that animated by an extream Ambition and supported too by a strong Constitution as i Libr. 21. Annal. Livy has describ'd it So Salust gives me a great Opinion of Catiline by the Picture he makes of him at the beginning of his History And when I see that desperate Soldier raise Armies in his Closet go up to the Senate with a Silence that shews his Resolution to affront the Consul to hear unconcern'd his Invectives to put Rome in Allarm to make Italy tremble to dare at last what no Particular ever durst I am not surpriz'd after the Description the Historian has made me of him I see a Man of Resolution who stirs all things without being seen because he had taken well his measure Pompey is far off with the best Troops of the Commonwealth tied by a troublesome thô necessary War Rome full of Factious People the Provinces full of Malecontents there 's a general Disorder in the
l. 12. c. 10. you must have a genius to write so and to elevate what you say by the choice of Expressions and by the greatness of your thoughts That gift is so rare that if you separate from the number of Historians those that have not writ so there will be but few true ones that will remain III. To write sensibly To write sensibly is to hit directly the thing you aim at in what kind soever you write without going from your Subject or losing time by the way It is to express things with a kind of Wisdom and Modesty not abandoning your self to the heat of your Imagination nor to the quickness of your Apprehension that is when you can suppress that which is superfluous in the Expression as those Adverbs and Epithets which diminish things as they express them to let no idle insipid and useless thing remain in it to cut off handsomly what is not fit to be said how fine soever it appears to allow ever less to fineness than to Solidity not to shew Passion or Heat where only cold Blood and Seriousness are requir'd to examin all your thoughts f Delectus Verborum habendus pondera singulorum examinanda Fab. l. 10. c. 3. and measure all your words with that exactness of sense and that exquisite Judgment which nothing escapes but what is exact and judicious It is in fine to have Strength enough to resist the temptation Men have naturally to shew their Wit g Luc. de conser Hist as that Impertinent Historian who in the Parthian overthrow by the Emperour Severus makes Osroes fly in a Den shaded with Lawrels and Myrtle wherein he makes himself ridiculous thinking to be more agreeable which is the most slippery step an Author can fall upon And that Spirit endued with Sense that wise Character which History requires is a kind of attendance upon ones self which allows it self no manner of Exaggeration and which takes endless Precautions against those bold Imaginations which those whose Spirits are too quick or too fertile are subject to that they may say few things in few words as Salust does who holds Councils gives Battels takes Towns conquers Kingdomes with a compendiousness of Discourse and an overflowing Expression which is understood at half Sentences Tacitus has all the Sense necessary to be short but he has not enough on 't to be understood The Readers grow sometimes impatient in that Author's Precipitations which loses much of his agreeableness and trying to compact in too few words that which should have been more extended falls into Obscurity The desire he has of being too short angers me because of the small Instructions he gives me in things which he does not unfold enough Polybius and Appian sometimes say too much there is a sort of judicious silence which makes one comprehend often the greatness of the things one speaks of better than any words when they are too weak It is a Master-piece for one to suppress those things he cannot well say and the great Discretion in an Historian is to make a distinction of what must be extended or made short that so he may give to every thing the just measure it ought to have to make it acceptable For Livy thô very large is not tedious because he is a Man of Judgment even in his very Prolixity But Thucydides by sticking too close to Sense sometimes falls in a kind of hardness and dryness which one would hardly forgive him was it not for the pureness and nobleness of his Style So difficult it is to write very sensibly without losing somewhat of the agreeableness which one might employ if he had a lesser Wit. But let an Author imprint well in his Mind that the greatest Ornament of his Work is always good Sense all the rest wearies one but Sense never tires 'T was the good Sense of Philip de Comines made him justly deserve the esteem and approbation of our Age in despight of the bad and ill-digested Language he wrote in But of all Modern Historians none has written more sensibly than Mariana in his History of Spain It is the Master-piece of the last Ages for that quality alone In all that Work a Genius appears which keeps him always from neglecting himself in choice Points and from abandoning himself in those that are not so And this judicious equality which that Author always observes thô the matters he treats of be never so unequal is little known to our late Historians But the Art of thinking sensibly of things is not sufficient unless he has also that of expressing them purely IV. To write purely An Historian who thinks to commend his Book to future Ages must think of h Historico sermoni decus conciliet perspicuitas proprietasque verborum Beni lib. 2. de Histor writing purely Without that advantage an Historian will be but short liv'd For want of i Quid tam necessarium quam recta locutio Fab. l. 1. purity of Style so many Greek and Latin Historians of whom Photius and the other Library-keepers have made mention have perish'd in the general shipwrack of so many Books and that of a number almost infinite of whom k Cura magna sentiendi loquendi sed dissimulatio curae praecipua l. 9. c. 4. Vossius speaks none remain but those that have writ reasonably enough to deserve to be read You must not then pretend to write History unless you very well know the Language you intend to write in and except you write purely For as soon as your design is to instruct you ought to think how to express your self neatly that you may be understood for when a man speaks well every one is willing to hear him besides one that speaks ill never speaks any thing right l Nihil est in Historia pura illustri brevitate dulcius Cic. in Brut. and that clearness which is the greatest charm in History can only be found in a pure Style That purity consists chiefly in the propriety of words in the natural ordering of the phrases and in the wise and moderate use of figures The style ought not to have any thing m In Sententia nihil absurdum aut alienum aut subinsulsum in verbis nihil inquinatum abjectum non aptum durum longe petitum Cic. de op gen orat improper strange bold hard creeping nor obscure Herodotus has that purity of style and has excelled in it above all other Grecians as Caesar above all the Latins The Wits of the following Ages grew rusty and retain'd little of the purity of the Ancients But Quintus Curtius thinking to appear more polish'd has lost somewhat of that great and majestick grace which becomes Salust and Livy so well It is true that he flourishes some places too much as for example the Description of the River Marsyas in the beginning of the third Book The Adventure of Abdolonymus who from a Gardiner became King in the fourth