Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A58060
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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.
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One of the Society of the Port-Royal.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing R264; ESTC R22028
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57,193
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182
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own Wit. Let not History then authorize the ridiculous Conceits of false Glory which causes vain People to commit so many Errors the most part of which contributes little to true Honour because they have no sense of it Let it not attribute to a Mounte-bank the Sentiments of a solid man nor the Vertues of a Romantick Heroe to a true Knight Great men are subject to form to themselves Idea's of Glory after their own fancy and according to the failing of their Vanity But the Publick Interest ought to be dearer to him who governs than his own Glory And the true Honour of a great Prince is to gain the People's Hearts rather than their Fears Those are the Sentiments which ought to reign most in History that it may become a Lesson of Clemency to Princes and a Pattern of Reason and good Sense to all People Let not an Historian therefore be mistaken let him first distinguish true Honour from false and in the Maxims of this Life praise only what is good Let him clear the Peoples Errors without becoming himself a Slave to Popular Sentiments Let him never suffer himself to judge of things by their Events without running up to their Spring but let him open their very Principles Let him be careful of doing Justice to the true and pretended Merit that he may not impose on Posterity which gives Credit to what is said without any examination and sticks to the Litteral Sense Let him never shew great Events without giving notice of Causes and without discovering their true Motives Sometimes it is nothing or at least but little but People lack to see great things come from small Principles as Dionysius Halicarnassaeus teaches in the Fifth Book of his History on the occasion of the Revolution of Government from the Kings of Rome which happen'd through the Insolence of Young * T. Liv. l. 1. Ann. Tarquin and the Pride of his Father That is the Spirit which ought to reign in History and the Maxim which must be observ'd therein Let us see its Genius XXVI How the Genius of an Historian must be Nothing can be writ considerable in History without a Genius that makes all in that Art as well as in others and it is only that way that Historians distinguish themselves from one another A small Genius will make but little of a great Subject and he that has a great Genius will make a small Subject appear great * Arduum videturres gestas scribere quod facta dictis exaequanda sunt Salust proem Bell. Catil To write History well therefore a man must have an universal Genius capable of great Idea's to form to himself a great Model and great Designs History is a thing of importance †Magnum quid Historiam recte scribere summis Oratoris proprium Cic. l. 2. de Orat. says Cicero and the business of a Man above the Common Level And when Lucian who was one of the finest Wits of his Age which produc'd so many great men confesses that his Genius was too weak for History and to attain to that Perfection which it requires He frights me by creating in me a just apprehension of the difficulty which attends it For if that Author which has written nothing but what is admirable and gives Rules so full of good sense for the writing of History acknowledges that he is not capable of sustaining the weight of so great a work what will become of those that in one day set up for Historians without any knowledge of what is Essential in History as he says it happen'd in that War in Armenia which produc'd so many Authors through an Itch of writing which at that time was a common Disease But the Times are chang'd says he nothing is more difficult than for a man to compile a Work which all future Ages may esteem as Thucydides has done For what strength of Spirit is requisite to speak the Truth without making Paraphrases as those do who have not Souls great enough to be clear and candid and to speak things as they are What firmness to unmask Vice naturally disguis'd with Dissimulation What Sagacity to discover the bottom of the Genius of them we speak of without sticking to the exterior part of the Person which seldom signifies any thing But when the business is to distinguish People and Times by what is essential in their Characters how necessary is a clear and distinguishing head As for Example in relating the Civil Wars of Rome not to confound the Spirit of the Commonwealth with that of Monarchy the absoluteness of the one with the Dependency of the other not to write the Reign of Lewis the Fourteenth which is no way addicted to Superstition like that of Lewis the Eleventh whose Character was Superstition it self not to represent Charles the Great like Henry the Third but to mark the Times and the Persons by the difference there is between them What integrity exactly to do Justice to Vice and Virtue to distinguish the true from the pretended Merit and to use ones self to weigh the Actions without any regard to the Persons What Judgment to take always the right side to turn things to the right sense to chuse always what is most solid to interpose your Judgement upon the matter in agitation without forcing the Reader by any prejudices to touch tender Points with that niceness of Wit which can only be the Effect of an exquisite sense not to load your Discourse with too much Matter which might chance to spoil the Spirit of it without giving way to any Reflection whatsoever made either by you or any other Reader to know how to find the true knot in every business without mistaking your self in its explanation not to deliver great Actions upon frivolous Motives not to hide false Thoughts under a florid Expression to avoid any thing which seems studied and forc'd and to follow in all things that beam of light and understanding which gives an Idea of the discerning Faculty of the Historian by giving a good Opinion of his Capacities So that the most necessary part in History is Judgment An Orator may forget himself in the flights of his Eloquence and venture bold stroaks which may pass upon a multitude of People who are pleas'd with nothing more than boldness A Poet may ramble from his Text and has no great necessity to be always wise The Historian who speaks only in cold Blood ought always to be Master of himself and to say nothing but what is just nothing in fine requires so much Sense so much Reason so much Wit and Judgment and so many other Qualities to attain to perfection as History and after all is done an happy Understanding endued with all those Perfections is not sufficient without a great knowledge of the World. It was only the Conversation Polybius had with Scipio and Lelius that made him so able an Historian We have in Thucydides and Livy accomplish'd Patterns of
Livy gives to his History a character of greatness which is beyond all other Historians by giving to all the Subjects he treats of the colours their ground is capable to receive Thus he gives to the last Kings of Rome all the Pride that an absolute Authority inspir'd them with He changes the Spirit of the Commonwealth by the austere Virtue of the first Consuls by the Populary Motions of the Tribunes by the austerity of the Government of the Decemvirs by the lazy Delicacy of the last Consuls that he distinguishes each Age by the Genius which has been predominant in it not confounding the different motions of that genius with the different circumstances of Times which don't resemble one another and that he sustains himself always by the great Images he gives of the things he treats of Tacitus to the contrary gives almost to all his Matters the same form all is done there by Policy the People he speaks of have always a Spirit higher than others It is not their Spirit which makes them move 't is that of the Historian who having a spirit too compacted gives always the same Air to his expressions and the same turn to his thoughts all things resemble one another Policy is still made the cause and the result of all things h Tyberium ascitum quod ejus arrogantiam introspexerit comparatione deterrima sibi gloriam quaesivisse Tacit. l. 1. Annal. If Augustus on his death-bed chose one to succeed him he appointed an Emperour worse than himself on purpose that he might be mourn'd for If i Dolabella in absurdam adulationem progressus l. 3. Ann. Tyberius made Piso Governour of Syria 't was only to make him a Spy to Germanicus by whom Egypt had been govern'd and whose glory he did envy Dolabella's flatteries displeas'd him because they were too course k Suspectabat Syllam socors ejus ingenium callidumque simulatorem interpretando l. 13. Annal. If he banishes Sylla 't is because he thinks his silence a wise dissimulation That Emperour's modesty is nothing but a hidden Ambition his favours are only snares his moderation is nothing but pride and his Religion is nothing but grimace He reckons it a sign of the God's displeasure that Sejanus should become Favorite of the Emperour and be raised to be a Minister of State. Arruntius poisons himself out of Policy that he might not fall into the hands of a master more brutish than Tyberius He finds an agreeableness even in the Emperour Claudius's folly and a great deal of Wit in the debauches and brutishness of Nero. l Temporibus Neronis sapientia pro inertia fuit ibid. Some of the Blockheads of that Age and Reign he represents as men of refin'd Prudence In fine all the characters resemble one another Nature has no share in any thing her Sentiments are always forc'd and every where it is the same genius which reigns by the impression of the Historian's Wit and which has no great variety Mariana runs on with a fuller career The Romans the Carthaginians the Christians the Arabians the Moors the Mahometans make every one their Figure The Wit of the Author mingles it self only with the other Spirits to distinguish them according to their characters opening always some new way as different as the Subjects he treats of requires We may say also that among the Moderns no History is greater for its form than that of Mariana VIII The End of History Romance only pleases History instructs This is the essential difference between them this having no other end than the instructing of the Publick m Alias in Historia leges observandas alias in Poemate illa ad veritatem quaeque in hoc ad delectationem referri pleraque Cic. 1. de legib For as it is not compil'd only for the present its aim ought not to be limited to the time which passes away but to Posterity which is Everlasting What folly were it in a Man that should think of nothing but diverting the People of the Age he lives in when he may become useful to all Ages Those are the Reasons n O pulchra ista pars quae actiones vitamque bene format ac dirigit Tacit. Ann. l. 3. Lucian uses to oblige an Historian to think of nothing but of being useful by ruling the Hearts and Minds of Men by the Instruction he gives them They are deceiv'd he says who pretend that History can be divided into two parts the Useful and Agreeable for an Historian ought to have no other prospect than the profit People draw from a sincere and true Narration If he intermix some thing that is agreeable he ought not to corrupt the Truth but rather to embellish it and make it the more acceptable And to justifie his Opinion he shews the extravagant way of the Historians of his Age which made themselves ridiculous by following other Principles o Graecis historiis plerumque poeticae similis est licentia Fab. l. 2. c. 4. Herodotus sought how to please those of the Age he wrote in but his Sincerity was so run down in the following Ages that it p Et quicquid Graecia mendax peccat in Historia Juv. Sat. 10. made the Sincerity of the Greek Historians be suspected in Quintilian's Time. Photius makes mention of an Historian which thought that his saying incredible things made him the more acceptable And q Quidam incredibilium relatu commendationem parant Lectorem aliud acturum si per quotidiana duceretur miraculo excitant opus suum fieri populare non putant nisi mendacio asperserint Sen. l. 7. quaest Nat. Seneca complains that in his Time there were Historians who pretended to make themselves famous by their fabulous Narrations This was always pleasant to the People who delight in Fictions but not to Men of Sense and Honesty who love Truth only In the following Ages the Arabians stuff'd their Writings with so many Fables that they spoil'd the greatest part of the Greek Historians of their Age by the fancy then in fashion of mingling surprising Adventures in all their Relations they thought the only way to please the People was to say incredible things The same Spirit infected part of the Modern Graecians which is the cause why the Account we have of those Times by the Byzantine History is not the surest in the World the Authors of it not seeming very exact and when an Author writes by their Memoirs he ought to take great Precautions against so false an Idea to make People believe him because the least falshood spoils all and converts Truth into a Fable Even the truest things ought not to be told when they appear incredible or extraordinary unless you give 'em an appearance or at least a colour of Truth It is what Thucydides does and though he saw Herodotus in so great an esteem that the names of the Muses were given to his Books he thought of nothing but of speaking the