of Nature as Aristotle of Animals Theophrastus Pliny and many others Humane treats of Mens Actions and that by a second Dissection divides it self into five other kinds True Fabulous Vniversal Particular and Singular The True Treats of things received by the common Belief of Men The Fabulous of such things as are feigned and imagined for the Divertisement of the Reader as what we find in Poems and Romances The Vniversal has an Extension without Bounds embraces all Times and Nations as that of Diodorus of Sicily Trogus Justin Cardinal Baronius and our Father Sallian The Particular is much more confin'd and contents it self with the Extent of one Nation as Livy and Tacitus or one Reign as that of Quintus Curtius The Singular yet more restrain'd treats of certain choise Persons that have merited to live more than once to be seen more than in one Age And we may place in this Rank the Cesars of Suetonius the Famous Lives of Plutarch the Philosophers of Laertius and the Sophists of Philostratus And amongst these not to stay too long in the Times so far off our Age we may give place to the Collections made by the Sieur de Brantosme of Princes and Captains Princesses and Ladies that have lived since the Reign of Francis the first to his Time CHAP. II. The Definition of History given 〈◊〉 Vossius Examined and Refuted THE Confusion of Species 〈◊〉 different ought to be 〈◊〉 right and that cannot be betteâ— done than by a Regular Definition that may be as a correct and juâ—â— Portraiture where true History naturally represented and accordinâ— to her proper Character may bâ— distinguish'd from Illegitimates anâ— Bastards that are only so by Suâ—ferance Vossius to whom the Age is obliged for the most accomplish'd Collections of all that appertains to History has made a Definition that to speak the Truth is only a Fantastical Picture of his own Imagination He cuts off the Tongue and Fingers takes away the Voice and Pen and retrenches the Auditors and Readers In a word He would neither have her speak or write that is to say he has shut her up in the Breast of an Historian and will only have her a simple Knowledge of particular things that ought to be exhibited to the Memory of Men for Instruction to live well If this Definition was Just she would be no more the great Work the laborious Enterprise the Burden that makes the greatest Wits give way and with a moderate Memory it would be as easie to be an Historian as to Play at Picket or Tictack Besides a Man without the least Tincture of Grammar or any knowledge of History by the sole Report that may be made him of what she contains might become all the Historians in a Moment And if Composition be but as Cloaths to the Body as Vossius says he may be Thucydides and Tacitus in Body and Mind and want nothing of either but the Greek Mantle or Roman Robe Thus with his Favour whom I should grieve to offend as he understands the Laws of Dissertation he will not be so Angry at as a Learned Person beyond the Alps whose Wit I have a Just Esteem for and yet he entred Processes against me in the most gallant Court and before a Prince the most Spiritual of all Italy because I was not of his Opinion in some Points touching the Art of Emblems in the Tournaments of the Learned as well as those of the Cavaliers 'T is permitted to strike when a Man cannot otherwise defend himself and 't is less a Mark of Esteem than Scorn not to design to lift the Arm against those we Rencounter Learned Princes the Saints of the Church are every day treated in the same manner and after having refuted them we celebrate their Festivals and recommend our selves to their Prayers CHAP. III. The true Definition of History and its Picture drawn with all its Parts LET us then make a Definition or Picture of History that may be more Natural than that Vossius has left us of her And 't will not only be more Natural but Entire and Compleat if we say That History is a continued Narration of things True Great and Publick writ with Spirit Eloquence and Judgment for Instruction to Particulars and Princes and Good of Civil Society The Definition is not of those Slubber'd pieces drawn by the Logicians at two strokes 't is drawn out at length but has nothing Vain or Superfluous The Kind the Difference the Form and the End of History are there expressed First The word History is a Generical Term that is common to all Relations whether Spoke or Writ in Prose or in Verse True or False Secondly 'T is a continued Relation that has all its Parts fastned together as those of the Body or regular Edifice And by that History is distinguish'd from Annals Journals and Gazettes whose Parts not being joyn'd without Correspondence without Union are only rude Heaps of Materials In the third place 'T is a Narration of Truth by which it differs from Heroick Poems and Romances that are regular Compositions and demand Unity and Correspondence in all their parts but through this Defect all those Edifices where the Architecture appears so Just and the Furniture so Rich are only Imaginary Structures and Beautiful Castles in the Air. But History requires not only they should be True but Great and Politick and by that in the fourth place raises it self above Memoirs and Journals that entertain with Private and Domestick and sometimes with Trifles which Posterity might very well be Ignorant of without Prejudice In the fifth place History I speak of the perfect must be writ with Spirit Eloquence and Judgment All true Histories from whatever Parts they have come whether from Greece or Italy have this Character and that distinguishes from Legends and Chronicles that come out of Religious Houses as likewise from Memoirs and Commentaries that are happily born in more polish'd places but want the Warmth of Wit the Lights of Eloquence with which the Structure of History must be enlightned the Ancient Masters have left us this by Tradition Cicero says A good Historian must be a good Orator Polybius affirms A Narration that barely recounts things done and teaches not why how and for what end is only fit for Boys that would be amused and not an History when Men are to be instructed Lucian has said the same after them And History being a Practical Philosophy that teaches by Patterns and Examples and this Method of Teaching being more fine than that of Arguments in form it therefore demands a greater fineness of Wit and if their Judgments fail then whence shall they have the Faculty of discerning Action and Things Or if they be Dumb or Mute How shall they use the words to perswade Princes Statesmen and Generals and of what shall they make Elogies and Crowns for Illustrious Persons if they are unprovided of Wit the Composer and Eloquence the Matter of them The Instruction of
Offerings made to any God whatsoever The Sacrificers of Samaria the Priests of Baal Could they have Preach'd more advantageously for their Idols than this Priest of the Tribe of Levi Is there any thing more contrary to the words of Moses who recommends so strictly to the People of God in Exodus and Deuteronomy to beat down the False Gods to break their Statues and set Fire to their Woods and Temples Yet this Man makes such a singular Profession of the Truth as if the Pens of Moses Daniel or Isaiah had not been more Sincere and Faithful than his CHAP. V. That the Historian curious of Truth must not trust to Fame The Character of Fame Partial Relations less to be relied on That he ought to be without Passion as well as Country and Party NOtwithstanding there are Remedies for these Inconveniences and since the first degree of doing well where Perfection is drein'd from all Defects is not to be attain'd by Humane Frailty Let us endeavour after the Second where small Faults are passed over and according to Horace Those esteemed Perfect who have the least Imperfection To compass this end there are three things to be observed in the choise of Matters the Historian would work upon The first is Not to take them from Fame but very seldom and with great Discretion The Second To draw them yet more rarely from the Writings of Interested Persons or Enemies The Third To make his Principal Fund Relations Memoirs Letters and Instructions of those who have been either Movers or Spectators of Affairs that have had them in their Hands or before their Eyes First He must not trust to Fame she is a Worker of Impostures and Calumnies in every Language every day She is accused of Falsity every day stands convicted without ever Blushing or correcting her Manners She has a hundred Mouths ascribed her and not one of them can repeat the same thing twice or any thing like it In one word She raises invisible Armies and with one Breath defeats others that remain entire after the Rout she Kills and restores to Life takes away and gives Victories to whom she pleases and in despite of Fortune Crowns the Vanquished and overthrows the Victorious What Truth can we expect from such a Courier who has nothing ordinarily but False News in her Mouth Mailes fill'd with false Relations and false Letters And will not that Historian oblige Posterity that leaves an Extract of all these Vain and Idle Things And what I say of Fame may be likewise said of Gazetteers those Secretaries without Credit who sell themselves to write a thousand Falsities and distribute them every Week with the loss of their Reputation Secondly Since the labour of an Historian is different from that of a Poet who makes his own Materials as well as the Figure he gives them He must do as the Architect inform himself of the Quarries from whence he must fetch the Stone and Marble for the Structure of his Edifice He must remass all the Memoirs Relations Acts publick and private that regard the Time the Persons and Actions of which he would compose his History But he must have a care those Pieces be authentick well esteemed and purged from Falsifications and Disguisements that carry the Passion of Parties otherwise he will impose upon the Publick Faith and the Deceit will pass from his own Age to Posterity Above all things he must abstain from certain Sources from whence there is nothing to draw but Filth and Venom Following this Rule and being to write of Charles the Ninth he will not search for Truth in the Memoirs of Colligny And to make a History of his Successor he will as little consult the Relations of his Mynions though there remains but that of the Guises If he is to write of the Popes and Court of Rome he will not do it from the Memoirs come out of Geneva And if he is to speak of Jesuits he will forbear giving Credit to the Holland Gazettes and Faith of Hereticks whether known or disguised Ancient or Modern If the President de Thou otherwise a great Man had thought of these Rules and had distrusted as he ought the Dutch Libels infected with the Poison of Heresie he had left us a History more correct and less subject to offend the Curious in the matter of Belief And if others that have followed him had addressed themselves to Streams more Pure than those that flow from the Lake of Geneva the Filth they have suck'd up to bespatter the Roman Prelates and Catholick Princes had not recoil'd upon their own Works Conscience and Reputation but they thought that a heap of Impostures and Calumnies drawn from the Scandalous Chronicle of Henry the Third and the Libels of the League and Hugonots would raise their Name and after that Salust Livy and Tacitus darkned with their Eclat be less esteemed and give place to them But because Ignorance is not the greatest Source of Falsity in History and that the most part enter through Malice and Flattery and the Affections that cause them The Care the Historian must have to furnish himself with good Instructions and Memoirs will serve him but in little stead if he does not Disinterest and Purge himself from all sorts of Passion Where Interest is Master Truth is seldom harkned to and less where Malice is Mistress and the Pen of a Writer must be very steady this Passion does not turn awry From thence comes the Contrarieties are found in Spanish and English Histories when they speak of France or French-men and in those of the French when they speak of Spaniards and English Though of all the Writers of what Nation soever there are none that write with more Sincerity and Truth defile their Pens with less Gaul and do greater Right to the Merit and Valour of their Enemies than ours 'T is a Sight capable to divert the most Melancholly and Chagrin to see in the History of Sandoual the French fly before the Spaniards like the Game before the Falcon. When of all People they can best witness the French are not accustomed to use their Spurs with their Swords in their Hands And 't is not less pleasant to see in Guicciardin Charles the Eighth enter Florence in the Habit of Pacolet when this little Man he turns into Ridicule with the Wooden Sword and Spurs he sends him forc'd his way through the Bowels of all the Republick of Italy Let the Historian then possess himself he is of all Countries or none that he is without Father and Mother without Genealogy or Race as the ancient King of Salem That he is of no Party but that of Truth whatever Livery he wears or whatever Language he speaks and that he owes her all his Worship and Devotion in whatsoever Climate he is found And that being Debtor to use the words of St. Paul to the Fools and Wise Barbarians and Greeks his Honour as well as Conscience is obliged to do Justice
than those of Augeus But is there any thing so bad that pleases not some depraved Appetite And tho' France has for some Years produced no Monsters she has had heretofore her Apuleius's notwithstanding she is at present freed from such Prodigies If Modes as well as Seasons have their Revolution who can promise the Phoebus of Norvese and Gothick of Vignere will not return again with the Golillos and Ruffs of those Times CHAP. IV. The last Rule in Descriptions and its Importance FOR the sixth and last Rule An Historian must not enter into any Country where he is Ignorant of the Language without an Interpreter to assist him I mean he must not undertake to describe any thing he does not know or has not been informed of Otherwise he will but form Chimera's where he thinks to draw Representations Speak of War in a Court-Stile and of Navigation in Terms of Husbandry Will take the Country for the Soil and when he has an Assault or Battle to describe will do it in the words of a Proctor who gives an account of his Proceedings in the Pursuit of a Process In despight of the great and little Atlas against Nature her self he will make a New World and Maps as new as those lately made for the Globe of the Moon Place the Lap. and Fin-landers under the Line and Ethiopians under the Pole bring the Pyramids from Egypt into Italy and carry the Italian Aqueducts into Egypt Not content to take away one side from the Apenins he will transport it all into Asia or Africk Such-like Miracles have been done by Historians that were not Saints if we believe Lucian who says That in his time there were that carried whole Towns out of one Country into another with as much ease as a Gard'ner Transplants his Flowers and further make as Prodigious Transformations as those in Ovid's Metamorphosis turn Towns into Captains and Captains into Towns for which the Mareschal de Bassompierre accuses one of our Historiographers make Mountains Rivers and Rivers Forrests and without a Miracle or Witchcraft without the help of Heaven or Hell there is nothing in Nature he will not change from one Kind to another by the sole Vertue of his Ignorance aided by his Fancy Dissertation VII Of Harangues and Digressions CHAP. I. Whether Harangues are Superfluous in History And whether contrary to the Rule of Truth HArangues hold the Third place in Composition of History and if it belongs only to an Orator to be an Historian as all the Masters say after Cicero 't is here chiefly the Orator-Historian ought to display his Rhetorick I know all the World is not of his Opinion but what is Raymund Lully and others that imbrace the contrary but Pigmies opposed to this Achilles of the long Robe Diodorus of Sicily produced against Harangues condemns but those that intangle and dismember a Narration put things out of their Method by their unreasonable length or number yet more tedious And as this Greek that ought to love Wine as all other Greeks do would not have burnt down all the Vineyards to free the Ground from some bad Vines so he never design'd to cleanse History from some ill Harangues all sorts should be taken from her 'T is opposed to this That the Law which permits nothing false in History is violated by these Harangues that are all false and framed by the Historian That Probability alledged to maintain them is an Usurpation upon the Poets and she shamefully abused What is there of Scythian or Barbarous nay what is there not of Delicate and Polite in the Harangues the Ambassador of Scythia made by the Favour of Quintus Curtius to the Great Alexander And who can believe Galgacus that Tacitus places at the head of a People separated from others and as it were out of the World Harangued with such Figures and Expressions as he lends him The same may be said of his Arminius and Civilis which he makes speak as if Disciples to Longinus and Hermogenes In like manner the Romans covered with the Dust of their Cabins and smelling of Garlick as says a Modern Author are produced by Titus Livius with as much fineness of Wit and Grace of Language as was used a long time after by the most Curious in the Court of Augustus CHAP. II. That Harangues are necessary in History not contrary to Truth nor Probability Historians and Poets justified thereupon ALL these Reasons conclude nothing against Harangues The Law of Truth ought not to be understood but of things that receiving some consistence either by Tradition or Writing might come entire and without Alteration to the Knowledge of the Historian he is obliged to take them as they come to him by these ways and the Law of Truth confines him that without changing any thing either in Matter or Figure he should make use of them such as they are 'T is not so with Words that have Wings as a Greek Poet says and after the Arabian Conceit are the Birds of Carriage no Nets can take them no Bands hold them and it would not be enough the Historian was a Magician he must yet be a Prophet if he was to recite every Syllable as the Messengers of Homer of all that was said by Persons introduced in his History notwithstanding there are Occasions where 't is necessary they should speak for a Trader that is Dumb a Counsellor Silent an Ambassador without Words would there make but strange Figures The Historian must then make them Speak and lend them Words and that is found better than if they should all express themselves in different Languages and renew the Confusion of Babel in every History In making Harangues the Historian Vsurps not upon the Poets there are that belong to each of them but with this difference the one is founded upon Truth to the Exclusion of Falshood the other upon Falshood to the Exclusion oâ— Truth because Falshood coloured and disguised gives all the Honour to Poetry Two Famous Examples in History and Poetry that deserve Observation will clear better this Doctrine The first in the Fourth Book of Virgil's Aeneids where Dido moved by Love Despite Despair and Fury whether she stirs or speaks does all so probably so well composed so natural one cannot see her without Loving Hating being in Anger and Mourning with her Notwithstanding this resemblance of Truth is grounded upon as great a Falshood as ever was And it was not enough for Virgil to raise the Winds and Seas employ all the Gods that preside over Tempests to bring his Aeneas to Carthage in the time of Dido he was further obliged to force Chronology and do Violence to two Ages The other in the First Book of Livy where the Fair and Chast Lucretia Mad with the Outrage offered to her Honour expresses her self in so becoming a manner and in Terms so Natural no body but would believe the words her own And that happens because the Truth of the thing drawing with it the
World they will not mention any Miracle whatsoever The Heathen Authors have been more Religious and more Faithful and have had more Zeal for their False Gods far from suppressing the Events by which their Power and Might is made known they repeat them till they are rendred disagreeable In Livy and Tacitus you will find nothing at the beginning and end of every Year but Prodigies and Expiations of them And shall a Christian Writer to preserve the Reputation of a great Wit or avoid the Railery of a few Libertines leave out the Relations that are as Witnesses of his Faith and Proofs of the Power and Providence of that God he adores As if it were more the Mark of Sense and for the Interest of Mankind to recite the Cruelties of one Prince and the Debauches of another than the Wonderful Works by which God is pleased from time to time to awaken our Faith Josephus the Jew has given the first Example of this sort of Infidelity to make his Court to the Roman Princes in whose Reigns he writ as Leon Castrius has remark'd He has suppressed disguised or weakned the Wonders done in the time of his Fore-fathers as if he feared the God of Sion should appear more Puissant and Great in the Eyes of the Gentiles than the Gods of the Capitol That Miraculous Meteor that was during so many Years Conductor of the Jews sometimes a Cloud sometimes a Pillar of Fire appears not in his History where his evil Faith has dissipated it for fear it should give Offence to the sight of the Gentiles 'T is true he has not suppressed the passage of the Red Sea but in the manner he speaks of it he leaves a Doubt whether the strange Road by which the People passed was made by some natural cause or by vertue of some Power Superior to Nature And after comparing this Miraculous Event with what arrived to the Great Alexander when marching into Persia he passed the Sea of Pamphilia he leaves every one to believe what they please of one and the other shewing enough by this Prophane Ambiguity they were of equal weight or none at all in his belief His Prevarication is yet more bold and his evil Faith more open in what regards the passage of Jourdan The Holy Scripture tells us in express terms That as soon as the Priests that carried the Ark had set their feet in the Water one part of the River returned towards the Spring the other towards the Sea and the People passed over dry-shod Josephus finds the Miracle so strong and yet of so little Credit that to reduce it to an Appearance that better pleases his Palate than the Truth he tells you that three days after God made the Promise the Waters of Jourdan being abated the People passed over the Shallow And because from the words of the Scripture one cannot figure any thing more Marvellous he adds the Troop of Women and Children were ranged in the midst of the People to prevent their being carried away by the Rapidity of the Current What has he done with the Burning Mountain that made the Waters return to their Source Where has he placed the twelve Stones set upon the Shore in Memory of so great a Miracle He Suppresses all that to conserve the Reputation of a Judicious Historian and had rather be esteemed Prevaricator amongst the Jews than Fabulous with the Romans In all this it may be said he has made as many Apostasies as Falsities against the Holy Scripture He ceases not nevertheless to continue in Esteem because of those that value him some are ignorant of his Unfaithfulness and others trouble not themselves loving rather a Falsity well disguised than a plain Truth CHAP. VIII Whether Private Actions may be made use of in History And what ought to be those received IT may be here demanded whether Private Actions may not have place in History without derogating from her Dignity 'T is answered Instructing the Readers and Profit of the Publick being the Rule by which an Historian ought to judge of things that are used in the Structure of his Edifice without Scruple he may admit of Private Actions where he remarks some strong and lively Character of Justice Valour Moderation or Continence Extraordinary Because such Actions are the Pictures with which the Temple of History ought to be imbellished and those that enter this Temple make Rules and Lessons from the sight of these Pictures As for Actions that have nothing of noble but are of low and mean Nature what should they do in History Of what use would they be Let Gaming Hunting and Dancing be far from her 'T would be more seemly to see in a Temple or Palace the Signs of Shops in the room of Hangings and Pictures Not but that Princes may sometimes permit such things but there is difference between what may and what ought to be done between Indulgence and Obligation And it must be remembred 't is Obligation and not Indulgence distinguishes a Prince from a Particular Alexander lov'd the Pleasure of a good Table and Julius Cesar hated not the Ladies but it was not at Table Alexander acquired the Sir-name of Great nor did the first Cesar make himself Master of the Empire in the Closet of Cleopatra CHAP. IX Whether the Law of Truth obliges the Historian to keep nothing to himself Whether nothing be owing to the publick Vertue and good Example Whether 't is not better to Suppress the Vices of the Great than publish them THere remains to examine whether an Historian can in Conscience and without Scandal bloody and defile his Paper with infinite Cruelties and Filth to which he will be obliged in case he observes the second Rule To hold nothing from the Truth If I may be credited all these things ought to be Sacrificed to the Innocence of History and the publick Vertue First History that ought to be the Governess of Life and Guide of our Actions becomes a Scandalous Governess a Dissolute Guide by the ill Examples she exposes that have so much more weight the higher they descend Is there a more Infamous School of Vice a more Villainous place of Scandal and more Dangerous than the History of the Twelve Cesars writ by Suetonius And without mounting so high have we not lately seen with what Boldness the publick Vertue has been violated by a Scandalous Detracting History that was introduced into all the Closets and Streâ—ts and sullied with its Filth even the Spouse of Jesus Christ How many Maids and Women by the reading of this Petronius Travesty have ceased to be what they were before and said after the Example of the young Debauchee in the Comedy mentioned by St. Austin Why should not I do as such a Dutchess What such a Princess has done Owe I more to my Conscience more to my Reputation than they owe to theirs And by what right shall Vertue so free in a Palace be constrain'd in a Private House Secondly The Pen
Probability of Words founded upon it gives them part of those colours that then must pass for true Are Ambassadors accused of Falshood that express themselves more elegantly than their Instructions And the Letters of a Secretary of State do they cease to be true and the Prince's because they are more enlarged and in better Terms than in the Original 'T is then a Calumny to say the Truth of History is violated by the Resemblance in Harangues And the Injury goes yet further for this Retrenchment must be likewise made in Judgments Reflections and Conjectures that are Parts so Essential to History she ceases to be when they are taken from her Livy Tacitus and Quintus Curtius are not only accused for having laid aside Truth but Probability in lending more Wit Politeness and Eloquence to those they make speak than the Genius of their Country and Manners of their Age will bear It must be answered That Sense and good Wit are the Growth of every Country and all Ages That Scythia has had her Philosophers as well as Greece And at this time the Canadins notwithstanding the Barrenness of their Soil are born Eloquent and Haranguers and have a Natural Rhetorick as figured and Sententious as that we are taught in Schools and Books Besides The Poets so great Observers of Resemblance and Probability never thought it adviseable to change the Stile as they change the Persons There is but Plautus that pleases himself with playing the Trivelin as one may say in affecting such an odd unusual Method But if we believe Horace Plautus was in the time of Augustus what Clopinell is now All others are equal and uniform throughout the Servants in Terence speak as good Latin as their Masters the Shepherds and Shepherdesses in Theocritus express themselves agreeably and with Wit Nay his Polypheme Monstrous as he is has something Gallant And if the Criticks in the time of Virgil reproached his Corridon for a rustick word what had they done his Dido Anna and Jarbas if he had lent them the Barbarous Thoughts and Language of Africk Let this be said not only to justifie the Eloquence of the Scythians in Quintus Curtius but the Politeness of the Shepherds in Virgil Sannazara Tasso Guarinus and the Marquess d'Vrfe and the fine Thoughts generous and tender Passions I have attributed to the Saracens that make the principal Figures in my St. Lovis But for what end so long a Discourse The Example of all the Historians leave no place for Excuse We have in Greek and Latin Collections of their Harangues as the most Pure and Fine Part of their Wit And to take the Opinion of Raymund Lully and others upon the Practise of these Great Men would be to take the Judgment of a Colour-seller upon the Pictures of Fountain-bleau and the Roof of Val de Grace Harangues must then remain in History but in the place and form they ought not to embarrass burden and be troublesome CHAP. III. What Persons ought to Harangue What ought to be the Subject Matter and Measure of Harangues Thucydides and Salust reprehended for having fail'd in this Rule THE Historian that will be Curious in the Fitness and Regularity of his Harangues must above all have regard to the Age Quality Credit and Desert of those he makes speak It must be otherwise here than in a Comedy where the Vallet has his turn as well as the Master And 't is not much Princes Statesmen Captains or Ambassadors have right to be heard because the most Subtile Extracts of Policy are ordinarily in Harangues And an Officer of the Wardrobe a Life Guard-Man or a Clerk of the Palace that would appear Men of Importance would make in History as base an Incongruity as could be made in Grammar Secondly He must not employ his Rhetorick throughout but only upon Occasions and Matters that have wherewithall to sustain it Times of Battel were heretofore proper for Harangues but now that Fashion is almost out of Date and the Forwardness of the Soldiers Courage leaves little room for the Captains Eloquence Consultations where are treated of Peace and War Alliance or League Abdication or Election of a Prince Examples of Justice or Clemency and the like Affairs of great Account are proper places for Harangues but to use them upon the Death of a Foot-Captain Preparation of a Hunting-bout or the Attack of a Barn is to abuse Rhetorick and spend a great many fine words to no purpose Such Harangues would be like those made in the Senate before the Emperor about the Seasoning of a Turbut of extraordinary size if Juvenal may be credited Thucydides and Salust though so great Men and both Chiefs of their Order are reproached with having fail'd in this Rule The one in a long Mournful Harangue made by Pericles at the Funeral of Fifteen Gentlemen that died in the Service of the Republick was not this to expose the second Jupiter of the Athenians so Pericles was called to abuse his Lightnings and Thunders employing them in so mean a Matter But the Historian lending his words to the Orator would make it appear he was not less one than the other and that his Eloquence was able to make as much noise in Writing as the other had done with his Voice However the Funeral of Fifteen Soldiers might have been made with less Expence and the Mournful Oration better employ'd at the Obsequies of those Athenians lost in Sicily in greater Numbers and with greater Glory But Pericles was then Dead and there was never another Orator to whom the Historian could lend his Eloquence The Latins have not been more Regular in this than the Greeks Salust Harangues throughout and almost every where without occasion In the Conspiracy of Cataline the long Harangues Obscure and Contract too much the Narration and in his Jugurthin War the great Discourse made by Memius Tribune of the People without any other Reason than the Reputation of the Man for one of the best Speakers of his Time makes it plain enough he takes all Occasions right or wrong to make Satisfaction by his Historick Eloquence for the ill Success of his Oratorian Let the Historian then take for a Third Rule in Composition of Harangues to avoid Multitude and Length by which the Narration is broken the Reader retarded and put out of his way as by Hedges and Ditches in the Road of a Traveller that hasts to his Journeys end There is no Labour more Ungrateful nor more Unhappy no words worse employ'd and they are declined by all as infected places And if heretofore a Gallant Man chose rather a Prison than give his Approbation to an ill Poem those may be found that think the Gallies more Supportable than the reading such Harangues Boccalin is very pleasant in his Occurrences of Parnassus and makes appear the Pain suffered in this kind of Lecture He tells you That an Old Man being found reading a Madrigal under a Laurel-Tree with his Spectacles on 't was judg'd by