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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65611	The method and order of reading both civil and ecclesiastical histories in which the most excellent historians are reduced into the order in which they are successively to be read, and the judgments of learned men concerning each of them, subjoin'd / by Degoræus Wheare ... ; to which is added, an appendix concerning the historians of particular nations, as well ancient as modern, by Nicholas Horseman ; made English and enlarged by Edmund Bohun, Esq. ...; Reflectiones hyemales de ratione & methodo legendi utrasque historias, civiles et ecclesiasticas. English	Wheare, Degory, 1573-1647.; Horsman, Nicholas, fl. 1689. Mantissa.; Bohun, Edmund, 1645-1699.	1685 (1685)	Wing W1592; ESTC R6163	182,967	426

Keckerman and others who are of a contrary judgment but if you please you may hear both first Keckerman and then Vossius Seeing saith Keckerman Histories contain nothing but Examples of Precepts and Precepts are generally delivered in a Method but examples without any Method Except that which is methodically taught precede it is a common and a very mischievous errour and mistake for youth which is led onely by the pleasure and delight of History to begin professedly to read Histories before it is acquainted with those Sciences and Precepts which are delivered in Order and Method and with the common places to which all Histories ought to be reduced Now that this is very preposterous may be easily understood by thus comparing it with other Sciences as for example with Grammar Logick c. For as it were absurd for a Man to desire to know and observe the examples of Grammar Logick or Rhetorick before he hath learned the Rules of those Sciences so it must needs be more absurd for one to desire to read seriously and professedly and to observe Histories which are nothing but examples of Morality and Politicks before he has Learned the Rules and Method of Morality and Policy c. Thus far Keckerman And now if you please you may hear Vossius There is saith he nothing of absurdity as Keckerman pretends if one should choose to learn Examples before Precepts for it is very well known that Languages may be very well learn'd without Grammar Rules and then saith he those who are of Keckerman's opinion commit no small errour by not distinguishing between Reading and Writing an History to which no Man should apply himself if he be not well acquainted with Civil Philosophy Lastly he saith That they confound the naked and simple History of things with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Historical Perfection which inquireth curiously into the circumstances and causes of events In the last place he confirms his opinion by the Authority of Quintilian a Great Master in the Art of Breeding youth who commands Oratours to begin with Histories and Orations And at the same time doubts not to prefer Livy before Salust not onely because he is more Candid and more like Cicero than Salust but also because he is the Authour of a larger and more perfect History now he would never have written thus if he had not thought the most General Histories best for youth Thus Writes the most Learned Vossius SECT II. The Opinion of Keckerman defended That Tongues are hardly to be well-learned without Rules That there is a vast difference betwixt Languages and Actions That Practick Philosophy is necessary not onely to the Writer but Reader also of History Ubertus Folietta Sebastianus Foxius and Viperanus do all seem to be of this opinion And the most Learned Vossius himself affords us no infirm arguments to support it BUt may we have the liberty of this Great Man whose judgment is every where else of the greatest Authority with us and whom in the things relating to History we especially value and venerate to dissent and in some sort to defend the part Keckerman hath taken It seems therefore to me that Keckerman may thus Reply In the first place it is not impossible to learn Languages without Rules but that they may be as well Learned without Rules is denied We learn to Articulate words and to form compound and speak them by Hearing Use and Discourse without Precepts or Rules But then to Adorn our Speech and artificially form an Oration is scarce or rather not at all possible without the assistance of Rules and Precepts And besides although one may learn to speak of what Language soever he were without Rules yet he will never be able to judge of the exactness and propriety of Speech and to give the reason of it without them nor indeed to speak well or elegantly But then those things are best learned of which we have a perfect knowledge where we can give an account of the Reason of them as Aristotle our Master teacheth us And besides all this there is another judgment to be made upon Languages than there is upon Actions whether we are to imitate them or to compare them in our mind by Contemplation Use directs and corrects our Speech but it is the Rule and Precepts of Living well which are to govern our Actions The Custome of the place which is never fix'd governs our Language But then we know our Actions are to be temper'd with respect to Honesty and Turpitude and to be examin'd by the Precepts of Law Secondly Neither is the opinion of Vossius altogether to be approved in that he holds that Practick Philosophy is necessary for a Writer but not for a Reader of History For why not Do we not affirm that the same end is common to both of them the design of the one being that he may from examples learn the way of Living well the other's that he may also by Examples teach that way Is it not the scope of the one that by describing the Accidents that have attended the Lives of others he may insinuate wisedom into Men And is it not the scope of the other that by reading and observing those events he may attain to prudence It seems to be exactly thus to me at least and not to me onely but to many others and those not unlearned men If you please let us hear one or two of them Moral Philosophy and History saith Ubertus Folietta are two faculties which respect the common Good and Utility of Men and which direct them in the way to a blessed life and fit them for the preserving and improving Civil Society And therefore these two faculties have divided this work between them so that the first forms the Minds and Manners of Men by Disputes and Precepts and the latter by usefull Examples and salutary Admonitions teaching and advising them what to follow and what to flee in the course of their lives by whose Examples Men should govern and form their Actions and Counsels and sets before them the ends and events which usually wait upon good and evil Counsels by the knowledge of which Men may be engaged in the love of Vertue or call'd off from Lewd and Wicked courses Sebastian Fox also a Man of a celebrated judgment and eloquence in his time doth manifestly dissent from the great Vossius in this point For he in his Book de Institutione Historiae writes thus How shall you ever be able to know or judge of the Art or Elegance not onely of an History but of any other thing that is well written if you know not what that art is or what is rightly and well done those things you inquire of are not to be understood but by Learned and well-instructed Men for he that would accurately read a History must first know how it ought to be wrote c. and presently after he subjoins the reason Because Artificers and

an excellent Authour in the Opinion of Melchior Canus a Man of an approved Faith and a grave Historian But in the esteem of the most Learned Casaubon and Vossius he is a Spurious Pretending and Suppositious and in short an Authour of no Antiquity or at least quite another Man from that Noble Hegesippus who lived near the times of the Apostles and was Contemporary with Justin Martyr and Athenagoras of whom frequent mention is made by Eusebius and St. Hierome and yet after all this there are some who think he is no contemptible or unprofitable Authour in his first Book he has given an Account of the Wars of the Jews from the times of the Maccabees to the Birth of Christ and the death of Herod the Great And in his Second Book he brings down the History to the Expedition of Vespasian into Judaea Anno Christi 69. and then in his IIId IVth and Vth Books he has Consecrated to the memory of Posterity the Story of the total devastation of Judaea and the utter Ruine of Jerusalem by Vespasian and his Son Titus which happened Anno Christi 72. But then saith Bodinus This may be better and more truely Learned from Josephus who was not onely present in these Wars but was a Commander for some time and being made a Captive obtain'd from Vespasian and Titus the Privilege of being made a Citizen of Rome and the Flavian Sir-name which was that of their own Family and also a Statue And then the Princelike Virtues of an Historian an exalted erudition a rare integrity and a great experience shone clearly in that person And it is farther objected against this fictitious Hegesippus that he doth not treat of the Affairs of the Church but onely of those of the Jews from the time of the Maccabees to the ruine of Jerusalem But we may Answer Bodinus in the first place that this Hegesippus has shortly and elegantly comprehended in that Work what Josephus hath more copiously related in his VII Books of the Wars of the Jews and scatteringly in his Antiquities And in the next place that this Authour doth no less religiously than truely set forth some things concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ which are either altogether passed by by Josephus or onely slightly mention'd by him because perhaps he had an aversion for our Religion And he also sets down in a few words the causes of the War doth Learnedly shew the sources of those great Calamities and why that People which alone was chosen by God and beloved very much was thus consum'd why Jerusalem was destroy'd which was not onely the most Celebrated City of all the East as Pliny calls it but if we consider the extraordinary Favours of God of the whole World Why the Temple was rased their Sacred Rites abolished and the Politick Government of that Nation which had subsisted so many Ages was for ever taken away For the serious consideration of these things will yield the pious and prudent Reader a plenty of the most Excellent Fruits which History can afford him Or if our Reader of History is better pleased to pass by this suppositious Authour and will not be discouraged to go back again and after the Reading the Holy Bible and the Antiquities of Josephus and to c●ntemplate at one view the whole image of the Sacred History from the Creation of the World to the Birth of Christ and so on to the Fourth Centery of the Second Interval then let him here take in Sulpitius Severus his Sacred History which he begins with the Creation of the World and ends with the Synod of Bordeaux Anno Christi 386. He was a Man of much learning and prudence and a most Polite Writer His style is so pure and elegant that Josephus Scaliger calls him The most Pure Writer of the Church History But I cannot forbear confirming the Judgment of this great Man by the more Prolix and yet not less elegant testimony of Victor Giselin a Physician and Antiquary of a most accomplish'd Erudition He writes thus The blessed Sulpitius hath with great brevity compris'd and with an exact distinction of times shortly deduced to the Age in which he lived the Memory of those things which are contained in the Holy Scriptures from the beginning of the World Now whether any Age hath produced Another Work that is more excellent more noble and more usefull to the Christian Church than this small Piece I shall willingly leave to the Judgment of those who have better abilities than I to determine of it But as to the Elegance of it I dare undertake and I think I may safely affirm that it is not inferiour in any thing to the best of all the Church Historians but then as to all other Works which are of the same nature it hath so great advantages over them that they do not deserve to be compared with it That which I have said of it is great and may perhaps seem to most men incredible But yet what I say has so much truth in it that I am confident the veracity of the thing will prevail so much that my testimony may be spared especially as to those who will take the Pains to compare all the parts of this Authour with Orosius Florus Eutropius and the rest of the Writers of Epitomes He seems to me to have obtain'd the Garland onely by the imitation of C. Salustius a florid Writer of the Roman Story For observing that many things in him passed for excellencies which would become no other Man and were scarce possible to be imitated as his abrupt way of speaking which slips insensibly by the Reader or Hearer and doth not stay till a Man comes to it but as Seneca saith his Sentences come pouring in and his words surprize by their unexpected falls these I say be left to Salust as his sole personal excellencies And he studiously avoided his obsolete words which as Augustus said he collected out of Cato ' s Books de Originibus But then as to his spruce brevity tempered with significant Words and adapted in the highest degree to his design he imitated that Great Historian with so much Art that we may well say he rather emulated him and strove to out-doe him For he did not think it sufficient to follow his style and to divide circumscribe and cut it and make just such transitions from one thing to another except he made the same entrances to his Books the other did but with this difference that whereas he as Fabius saith chose such as had no relation to History Sulpitius accommodated his a little better to his subject All which things in History at least appear glorious as any Man may observe at the first Glance For it was written as I have said in the flower of his Age before his passionate love to Eloquence had been mortified by the severe discipline of the Monastery of Tours Thus far Giselinus The Elzivers two Dutch Printers put out this

and the conversation of Learned Men which she heard diligently But many have a great suspicion that this Royal and Learned Lady out of her great Love for her Father is a little too partial in this her History SECT XXXIX Nicetas Acomiatus follows immediately after Zonaras after Nicetas Gregoras Lipsius his Judgment of both these Writers The fidelity of Gregoras call'd in question Johannes Cantacuzenus is in this place commended to the Reader by the Learned Vossius after the former follows Laonicus Calcochondylas AFter Zonaras Nicetas Acomiatus or Choniates immediately follows in order and subjoins his History For where Zonaras ends there Nicetas begins and prosecutes the Story somewhat largely and freely for LXXXV years to the taking of Constantinople by Baldwin the Flandrian and the year of Christ 1203. He was born at Chonis a Town of Phrygia from whence he took his Sir-name The Chronicle of Gregoras Logothetes may here also have its place he has the History of the taking of Constantinople and of the events that followed for almost LX. years that is from Baldwin the Flandrian to Baldwin the last Emperour Both Zonaras and Choniates had great employments in the Constantinopolitan Empire which made them the fitter to write their Histories the first was the great Drungar and prime Secretary and the Latter was the great Logothetes and Lord Chamberlain of the Sacred or Presence Chamber After Nicetas follows also Nicephorus Gregoras who wrote an History of CXLV years to wit from Theodorus Lascares the First to his own times or to the death of Andronicus Palaeologus the latter which falls in the year of Christ 1341. We must confess these two last did not make it so much their business to describe the History of the Church as that of the Empire or Civil State yet because they sometimes intermix things belonging to the Church briefly as occasion serves and are therefore reckon'd by others amongst the Ecclesiastical Writers and also because Choniates connects his Narrative to the History of Zonaras and Nicephorus makes it his business to supply or fill up what haniates had omitted as if he had designed to perfect the body of the History therefore I could not omit them and that the rather because amongst the latter Greeks there are no Authours of better note than these for the inforcing which last reason to the Lovers of History and that we may with the greater facility induce them to the Reading of these Authours I will here paint out the judgment of Justus Lipsius upon them I confess saith he that Nicetas is not yet publickly and commonly much taken notice of but he is worthy to be more known being of a pure and right judgment if there were any such in that Age his style is laboured and tastes of Homer and the Poets very often but then the subject and relation it self is distinct clear without vanity or trifles as short as is fit and faithfull there is in him frequent and seasonable reflexions or advices his Judgments of things are not onely free but sound In short I wish all Statesmen would reade him and then I shall not question but some of them will pay me their thanks for this judgment of him at least I am sure they will owe me thanks Thus much of Choniates and of Gregoras he gives this judgment Nicephorus Gregoras takes up the History where Nicetas ends it and brings down the thread of his Narrative but he doth not deserve the same commendations for though he wrote the History of affairs from the taking of the City of Constantinople to the death of Palaeologus the latter yet he did it not with the same correctness or industry and has more of the faults of his Age than the former he is redundant and wandering and indecently and sometimes imprudently mixeth his own onceits and Harangues Yet his Judgments are thick sown and for the most part right the causes of events are curiously inquired into and represented Piety is inculcated and many things are seasonably assigned and turn'd over to the first cause that is to God In truth no Writer has more asserted PROVIDENCE and FATE He is to be read for this cause and also for another that is that the greatest part of his History represents a state of affairs not much unlike our own times for you will find in him Contentions and Quarrels concerning Religion not much unlike those in our days Thus far goes Justus Lipsius in his Accounts of this Authour But then there are some Men of great skill in History who have some scruples concerning the fidelity of this Nicephorus especially in the affairs of Andronicus Palaeologus where he ends as I have said above And therefore if the Reader please he may there take in Johannes Cantacuzenus who of an Emperour became a Monk and wrote an excellent History under the Title of Christodulus of the Reigns of Andronicus the younger and his own The Learned Vossius commends this History on many accounts to those that are conversant in the study of History This History saith he ought to be the more esteemed because it was written by a Person who had not always led an obscure private life but who was first a great Officer in the Family and Court of Andronicus Junior and after his death had the tutelage of his Children and afterwards the Senate desiring and the affairs of the Empire requiring it he was elected Emperour and behaved himself prudently and valiantly in that Royal station To this may be added that he did not write of things which were scarce known to him but of such transactions as he was present at and had the chief conduct of and in truth I think there is hardly any one amongst the Modern Greeks who ought to be preferr'd before him This Royal Historian flourished about the year of Christ 1350. this History consists of VI. Books as Vossius there saith whereof the two first treat of the Reign of Andronicus the remaining IV of his own Reign and what he did after the death of Andronicus He was made a Monk in the year of Christ 1360. when he took the Name of Josaaphus Thus far the Learned Vossius And that our Historian may not here be at a loss or interrupt the thread of his Reading till he have seen the last period of the Eastern Empire And the deplored state of the Church there upon that revolution he may be pleased to subjoin to the former the History of Laonicus Chalcocondylas the Athenian For he will diligently shew what followed and how at last that August or Royal City which was not content to be the second City of the World but greatly emulated Rome the Sovereign of the Earth fell into the Power of that Potent Tyrant the Turk the bitter Enemy of our Faith and of the most Sacred Cross. And he doth also most excellently describe the Rise Encrease and Progress of this Tyrant

that of the Reverend Bishop of Chichester Those Annals to be read with great caution and why Spondanus the Jesuite the Epitomizer of them THe Great Annals of the Great Cardinal Baronius which he wrote in opposition to the Centuries not long since are of equal moment and esteem and I will add of as great advantage and use too a Work which by the confession of the most Learned Men and of Casaubon amongst the rest is stupendious because that great person has in it digested the Transactions of the whole Christian World especially those that concern the Church into one continued series of years with the same facility as if he had wrote the Chronicle of some one City For he is the Man who first brought to light I know not from whence so many things which were utterly unknown before who with so accurate a diligence explain'd the successions of the most ancient Bishops in the great Cities the rises progress and ends of the ancient Heresies And the Turbulent and Peaceable times of the Church who if he had not abated his own merit by his excessive partiality was without all controversie worthy to have had the preference before all the ancient and modern Writers who never were able to attain that degree of Learning he had as the famous Casaubon writes of him nor is he alone in this high Encomium on him The greatest part of the Learned Men who deserve to be the Censors of other Mens Labours do exactly agree with him as I have said But then the most Learned Bishop of Chichester whom we have already so very often cited has right to a greater Authority with us than any other person whatsoever and he commends the great Cardinal where he deserves it and yet doth not spare him where he thinks him blame-worthy But take his own words There is scarce saith he any thing wanting in Baronius which a Man would mightily desire if his too great partiality and as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sympathy and compassion which he every where pursues and too too much cherishes in himself for the interests of the Church of Rome had been abated for it cannot be denied which Learned Men blame in him that he is so totally taken up with the defence and commendation of those whom he sides with that all the instances that now are or heretofore were extant in the Church of Rome of deserting or corrupting the Faith or depraving the ancient manners of the most leud sales of holy things and of the most execrable Sacrileges whatever has been insolently perpetrated of which sort we may find many examples acted by most wicked Popes with insufferable boldness to the prejudice of the Name of Christianity to the dishonour of the Church and in contempt of Jesus Christ which the greatest Catholicks will not deny but rather acknowledge them to be Monsters of Men and the very shames of Humanity yet all these he excuseth and this is little too for he defends them and which is yet worse he sometimes commends them and with much Oratory adorns and extolls these Villanies He doth not endeavour to correct the present Manners of Rome by the ancient but by violence draws the utmost Antiquity against her will and in despite of her reluctance by the very Throat to countenance their City Faith and especially that ill-born Faith and worse brought up concerning the direct Omnipotence of the Pope for the confirmation of which he makes use of all his Furniture and stretches to the utmost all the powers of his Wit Thus far that Learned Prelate So that we may rightly conclude that it was not without cause that the excellent Casaubon said That the extraordinary Merits of the Cardinal were corrupted by his too much favouring his own party And therefore my Hearers the Reader of Ecclesiastical History is to know that the Annals of Baronius are not to be read without great caution but then where this caution is to be used and how great it ought to be is in part shewn by the famous Casaubon in his Prolegomena's to his Exercitationes Baronianas But the Learned Bishop of Chichester as he has shewn in short the Errors and Rashnesses of the Centuriators so in many places he shews wherein the most Illustrious Annalist has deserved blame and that in express and clear words Spondanus a Jesuit but a foul-mouth'd Railing Fellow has contracted that voluminous Work of the Cardinal into an Epitome who might yet perhaps have deserved commendation for his diligence if he had not too superstitiously pursued the opinions of Baronius and thereupon endeavoured to confirm his conceit concerning the Omnipotence of the Pope destroyed the Majesty of Kings and Princes and endeavoured under-hand and as it were by the bye to intoxicate his Readers with the pernitious doctrine of Hildebrand SECT XLV Lucas Osiander reduced the Eight first Centuries of the Magdeburgians into an Epitome and not without good advantage He skips from the 8 th to the 16 th To this Century belongs the History of the Council of Trent The Praises of that History and of that Authour Jacobus Augustus Thuanus inserted into his Accurate History the Ecclesiastical affairs of those times beginning at the year 1546 and ending at the year 1608. which History is continued to the year 1618. LUcas Osiander a Man of no small fame reduced into a Compendium the Eight first Magdeburgian Centuries and did it so exactly that he scarce left out any thing that was very necessary to be known For besides the series of the several years he proposed in a more easie method what the state of the Church was in all times from the Birth of our Saviour shews how the Doctrine of the Gospel was spread throughout the World what Heresies arose in the Church and by what means they were suppressed what Persecutions were moved against the Church and how they were appeased what Doctours the Churches had in all times and amongst them the Lives of the Bishops of Rome are related The actions of the Emperours of Rome also are there described All which he hath comprehended in a very excellent Compendium But then he pass'd from the VIII th Century to the XVI th which the Magdeburgians had not touched for they ended in the XIII th Century and he treats of the actions of that a little more largely and gives the reason why he did so in his preliminary Epistle in these words But I saith he think that there is no age from the times of the Apostles downward which is more necessary or usefull to be known to pious Men than that in which we live especially as to the Church History which I now set forth for it contains an account of very great changes both in Church and States which are such so great and so many as never happened before in any Century To this Century belongs the History of the Council of Trent which Council was summon'd in the year 1542.

began in the year 1545. continued to the year 1563. the History of which Council written by Pietro Soave Polano a Venetian of the Order of the Servi a Man of admired Learning of an exquisite Judgment of an Indefatigable Industry and of a modesty and integrity that is scarce to be equall'd is in truth of more value than any Gold I think I may say then any Jewels and like to out-live the most lasting Monuments Which commendation is given deservedly to this Historian by that worthy and learned Person who faithfully translated this History into English who also was the first person who brought this pretious Jewel into these Western parts and to the great good of the Church first published it and in the preliminary Epistle has thus represented the Authour's Character and that not without good cause for he having had a Learned Intercourse with him and for some time conversed familiarly with him knew him throughly Yea the work it self confirms the truth of all this which was extracted out of the Memoires and Commentaries of Ambassadours out of the Letters of Princes and Commonwealths and from the Writings of the Prelates Divines and of the very Legates who were present in the Council which Writings had till then been carefully kept and out of them this History was extracted with so much labour accuracy study and fidelity as the said most learned and famous Knight has there observed that it may equal the best of all the ancient or Modern Histories of that Nature Neither are you my Hearers to conceive that this is the testimony of one single Person concerning either the Work or the Authour Be pleased then to accept a second and like testimony concerning both from the Latin Translatour also a person of the same degree with the former and for his great Ingenuity and Erudition of a flourishing Name Who writes thus of that Authour Nor doth he stand in any need of my Commendation his Work speaking him a person of an happy Ingenuity and of a great and right judgment liberally endowed with all sorts of Learning and abundantly adorn'd both with Divine and Humane Knowledge and that as well Moral as Political or Civil whereby he has attain'd a high degree both of Probity and Sweetness of Mind And of the Work it self he speaks thus As to what concerns the structure of this History whether you consider the things themselves or his Language and in the things if you observe the order of times the Counsels the things done the events and in the management of affairs if you desire not onely what was done or said should be discoursed but also in what manner and that when the event is told at the same time all the causes should be unfolded and all the accidents which sprung from wisedom or folly All these and a multitude of other such like things which the great Masters of History require in a good Historian he has performed so fully and exactly that in forming the History of one Council he hath represented all the Perfections of History and upon this account deserves to be numbered amongst the most noble Historians Jacobus Augustus Thuanus a Man of Noble Birth of great Learning and Dignity and worthy of the principal place amongst the Historians of this Age as we have observed above wrote the affairs of this Century as well Ecclesiastical as Civil from the year 1546 to the year 1608 with great exactness which History we have lately continued to the year 1618. Besides all these which I have named the Books of the Learned and Famous Gerardus Johannes Vossius concerning the Greek and Latin Historians will supply the Reader with the Names of a vast number of other both Civil and Ecclesiastical Historians out of which any Man that is not pleased with the choice I have made may choose out others at his pleasure But thus I think and that I have spoken enough concerning the First Part of my Method THE METHOD and ORDER OF Reading Histories Part the Second Concerning a Competent Reader SECT I. A young Man is as well to be thought an unqualified or incompetent Reader of History as of Moral Philosophy What things are required to both The end and scope of Reading The disagreeing opinions of the most Learned Vossius and Keckerman concerning this Question WE have finished the First Part in which we have represented the Authours both of the CIVIL and ECCLESIASTICAL History And we have made choice of those which we esteem'd the best of both sorts and have also shewn in what order they are to be Read And now in the Second Place we must inquire who is a competent Reader of them And we shall doe this with as much brevity as is possible Aristotle disputing in the first Book and third Chapter of his Ethicks concerning the competent and well-qualified hearer of those Doctrines he was to deliver there concludes thus A young Man is not a well-qualified hearer of Civil Knowledge or Morality because he is not experienced in the Actions which concern this life Because youth being ignorant in judging doth easily despise good advices and imbrace bad Counsels by which it is deluded and deceived But now if our Master has given a right sentence in this case what reason can be given why we may not pass the same sentence in our disquisition concerning a fit and competent Reader of Histories Seeing Wise Men have observed that History is nothing but Moral Philosophy cloathed in Examples In the Hearer of Ethicks or Politicks there is required in the first place judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he may judge well concerning the Rules of Actions And in the next place is required a well-disposed Mind that he may with dexterity endeavour to bring into use the Precepts he hath received And in the self-same manner it is necessary for the Reader of Histories to have the faculty of Apprehending whatever Examples he Reads and judging well of them And then that he should have an inclination and propensity of Mind to follow what is Good and to shun and avoid what is Evil and of turning all he meets with to his use and advantage For the principal end of History is Practice and not Knowledge or Contemplation And therefore we must learn not onely that we may know but that we may doe well and live honestly And therefore there are some Men of very great Learning who assert there is hardly any sort of study which seems to require more Sagacity Judgment Experience and Prudence than in reading History which is the best Mistress of Civil Conversation And therefore I have ever wondered that Gerardus Johannes Vossius who deserves to be numbred amongst the Princes of Learning in this Age should in his Elegant Book de Arte Historica of the Historick Art stifly maintain that this sort of study is fit for young Men and reject the opinions and confute and take off the arguments of Bartolomaeus

it yet as to the gaining any true and solid Learning it is of No use at all In the next place we approve our Reader so much the more if he has had a taste of Practick Philosophy or Morality the necessity of which qualification may be easily apprehended by what is said above In the next place if he has some degree at least of knowledge in Chronology that is the Successions of Times and Ages So that he is acquainted with the Series and Order of them and can inclose as it were in certain Limits the Empires Wars and Events he meets with in History That great Man Josephus Scaliger calls this the Soul of History without which it cannot breathe or live by others it is call'd the Right Eye of History by others the North Star which governs and directs the Reader whilst he Sails on the vast Ocean of History that he may the more certainly and quickly and with the greater delight and improvement arrive at the Port he designs by his Reading for he that without the Order of times thinks he may understand Histories will find himself in the end as much disappointed as if he should attempt to pass the Windings of a great Labyrinth without a Thread or Conductor But we attribute to History a left Eye too that is Geography or Topography with which if the Reader be not in some degree acquainted he must of necessity lose much of the pleasure yea and of the advantage or utility of his Reading and will scarce be able to attain a clear and perfect knowledge of the things related For who is so ignorant in History as not to understand how much light is given to the Reader by the circumstances of the place in which any thing is done Let him therefore be Master of the Common Divisions of the Globe of the Earth and let him know how to distinguish the Parts of the World and how they lye Let him also know the Provinces or Kingdoms in each part and at least the Principal Rivers Mountains and Towns for as to the more exact knowledge of small things we hardly judge it necessary to our Reader Lastly If he be in some degree also acquainted with other Arts and has some experience of things we shall then say that he is indeed a competent and well-prepared Reader of History And these things are sufficient to be spoken concerning the second Part of our Method OF THE ORDER and METHOD OF Reading Histories Part the Third Viz. Of the Manner of Collecting the Fruits of History Or of the Use of the Reading Histories SECT I. The last Head of what is to be handled proposed The Council of Ludovicus Vivis concerning those things that are to be Noted in the Reading of Histories The Custome of Augustus Caesar in his Reading Histories What things are found in Histories worth Noting and of what Use they are THE third Head yet remains which in the beginning we resolved to treat of in the last place and that was what in our Readings we should elect and how And this I might easily pass over if I did onely propose the Rules Ludovicus Vivis has given to be observed by all For he teacheth us what is to be observed in the Reading Histories in these words In Reading Histories saith he the first thing to be observed is the Order of times and in the next place all Words and Actions which will afford any example for the imitating what is good or the avoiding what is evil Wars and Fights are not so accurately to be considered as teaching us nothing but the arts and ways by which we may hurt one another it is also lightly to be regarded who took Arms who were the Generals where they fought who was beaten and what was done to them nor are these things to be read or written in any other style than that of Great ROBBERIES as indeed for the most part they are no better excepting onely those Wars which are begun against Thieves which I wish were more usually done amongst Christians it will therefore be better and much more fruitfull to fix our minds upon the affairs of the Gown and to Note what things are famously and wisely done in relation to any vertue what is basely and cruelly done as to vices what event followed how happy the ends of good Actions proved how sad and calamitous those of leud Actions Then the Speeches and Replies of men of great Sense Experience and Wisedom and especially those which according to the Greek word are call'd Apophthegms Counsels also and the Causes why any thing was undertaken done or spoken and especially the Counsels of such men as have excell'd others in Honesty Wisedom and Learning as for example the Philosophers and the best of Men the Saints of our Religion that we may not onely know what has proceeded from great agitations of minds but what hath come calmly from the force of the mind and judgment for indeed it is an unworthy thing to commit to writing the Operations of our affections and not those of our Reason and Counsels These Prescriptions are given us by that Learned Spaniard It would be a shorter work yet if I should onely propose to our Student in History the Example of Augustus the Emperour for his imitation of whom Suetonius writes thus In perusing the Greek and Latine Histories he did not pursue any thing so much as the Collecting those Precepts or Examples which were salutary and usefull to the Publick or to private men which transcribing word for word he very often sent to his Domesticks or to the Governours of Provinces or Armies or to the Magistrates of the City as any of them had need of an Admonition But we shall make the Use of Histories a little larger and yet shall not be over prolix neither For as we have observed above frequently and truly History is a treasury of very many and different good things For in History you will find some things which tend to the increase of Learning others of Prudence other things you may observe which tend to the improvement of the Language and which do contribute to the perfecting the Faculty of speaking well and lastly other things which tend to the well forming the Life and to the polishing the Manners SECT II. Two sorts of Learning to be gathered Philology and Philosophy under either of these there are several Species contain'd in what Order these are to be disposed and of what use they are That many have written concerning the Forms of Common Place-books THerefore we say there are two sorts of Excerpts in the whole which are especially to be observed by the Reader Philological and Philosophical Under the Philological we rank not onely all those Observations which concern the Elegance of Speech the Politeness of the Language and Style and the Propriety of Words but also the ancient Customs all their Rites Ceremonies and Solemnities of what sort soever they are and their