at the peroration. Sometimes, when the discourse has been entirely argumentative, it is fit to conclude with summing up the arguments, placing them in one view, and leaving the impression of them full and stroug on the mind of the audience. For the great rule of a conclusion, and what nature obviously suggests, is to place that last on which we choose that the strength of our cause should rest.

2. In sermons, inferences from what has been said, make a common conclusion. But inferences to rise naturally should so much agree with the strain of sentiment throughout the discourse, as not to break the unity of the sermon. For inferences, how justly soever they may be, deduced from the doctrine of the text, yet have a bad effect, if, at the conclusion of a discourse, they introduce some subject altogether new, and turn off our attention from the main object to which the preacher had directed our thoughts. They appear, in this case, like excrescences jutting out from the body, and forming an unnatural addition to it; they tend to enfeeble the impression which the composition, as a whole, is calculated to make.

Scholium. In every discourse, it is a matter of importance to hit the precise time of concluding, so as to bring our subject just to a point; neither ending abruptly and unexpectedly; nor disappointing the expectation of the hearers, when they look for the close; and continuing to hover round and round the conclusion, till they become heartily tired of us. We should endeavour to go off with a good grace; not to end with a languishing and drawling sentence; but to close with dignity and spirit, that we may leave the minds of the hearers warm; and dismiss them with a favourable impression of the subject and of the speaker.

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORICAL WRITING.

521. AS it is the office of an orator to persuade, it is that of an HISTORIAN to record truth for the instruction of mankind. This is the proper object and end of history, from which may be deduced many of the laws relating to its composition; and if this object were always kept in view, it would prevent many of the errors into which persons are apt to fali concerning this species of composition.

Obs. As the primary end of history is to record truth, impartiality, fidelity, and accuracy are the fundamental qualities of an historian. He must neither be a panegyrist nor a satirist. He must not enter into faction, nor give scope to affection; but, contemplating past events and characters with a cool and dispassionate eye, must present to his readers a faithful copy of human nature.

522. Historical composition is understood to comprehend under it, annals, memoirs, lives. But these are its inferior subordinate species, on which we shall hereafter make some

reflections, when we shall have first considered what belongs to a regular work of history. Such a work is chiefly of two kinds. Either the entire history of some state or kingdom through its different revolutions, such as Livy's Roman History; Hume's History of England; or the history of some one great event, or some portion or period of time which may be considered as making a whole by itself; such as Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, Davila's History of the Civil Wars of France, or Clarendon's of those of England; Robertson's History of Charles V.

Obs. 1. In the conduct and management of his subject, the first attention requisite in an historian, is to give it as much unity as possible; that is, his history should not consist of separate unconnected parts inerely, but should be bound together by some connecting principle, which shall make on the mind the impression of something that is one, whole and entire.

2. In general histories, which record the affairs of a whole nation or empire throughout several ages, this unity will be more imperfect. Yet even there, some degree of it can be preserved by a skilful writer. For though the whole, taken together, be very complex, yet the great constituent parts of it form so many subordinate wholes, when taken by themselves; each of which can be treated both as complete within itself, and as connected with what goes before and follows.

Illus. 1. In the history of a monarch, for instance, every reign should have its own unity; a beginning, a middle, and an end, to the system of affairs; while, at the same time, we are taught to discern how that system of affairs rose from the preceding, and how it is inserted into what follows. We should be able to trace all the secret links of the chain, which binds together remote and seemingly unconnected events. 2. In some kingdoms of Europe, it was the plan of many successive princes to reduce the power of their nobles; and during several reigns, most of the leading actions had a reference to this end. In other states, the rising power of the Commons influenced, for a tract of time, the course and connection of public affairs.

3. Among the Romans, the leading principle was a gradual extension of conquest, and the attainment of universal empire. The continual increase of their power, advancing towards this end from small beginnings, and by a sort of regular progressive plan, furnished to Livy a happy subject for historical unity, in the midst of a great variety of transactions.

523. In order to fulfil the end of history, the author must study to trace to their springs the actions and events which he records. Two things are especially necessary for his doing this successfully; a thorough acquaintance with human nature, and political knowledge, or acquaintance with government. The former is necessary to account for the conduet of individuals, and to give just views of their character; the latter to account for the revolutions of government, and the operation of political causes on public affairs. Both

must concur, in order to form a completely instructive historian.

524. The first requisites of historical narration, are clearness, order, and due connection. To attain these, the historian must be completely master of his subject; he must see the whole as at one view; and comprehend the chain and dependence of all its parts, that he may introduce every thing in its proper place; that he may lead us smoothly along the tract of affairs which are recorded, and may always give us the satisfaction of seeing how one event arises out of another. Without this, there can be neither pleasure nor instruction, in reading history.

Obs. Much for this end will depend on the observance of that unity in the general plan and conduct, which has already been recommended.

Much too will depend on the proper management of transitions. This forms one of the chief ornaments of this kind of writing, and is one of the most difficult in execution. Nothing tries an historian's abilities more, than so to lay his train beforehand, as to make us pass naturally and agreeably from one part of his subject to another; to employ no clumsy and awkward junctures; and to contrive ways and means of forming some union among transactions, which seem to be most widely separated from one another.

525. In the next place, as history is a very dignified species of composition, gravity must always be maintained in the narration. There must be no meanness nor vulgarity in the style: no quaint, nor colloquial phrases; no affectation of pertness, or of wit. The smart, or the sneering manner of telling a story, is inconsistent with the historical character.

Obs. On occasions where a light and ludicrous anecdote is proper to be recorded, it is generally better to throw it into a note, than to hazard becoming too familiar by introducing it into the body of the work.

526. But an historian may possess these qualities of being perspicuous, distinct, and grave, and may notwithstanding be a dull writer; in which case we shall reap little benefit from his labours.

Obs. We shall read him without pleasure; or, most probably, we shall soon give over reading him at all. He must therefore study to render his narration interesting; which is the quality that chiefly distinguishes a writer of genius and eloquence.

527. Two things are especially conducive to this; the first is, a just medium in the conduct of narration, between a rapid or crowded recital of facts, and a prolix detail. The former embarrasses and the latter tires us.

Obs. 1. An historian that would interest us, must know when to be

concise, and where he ought to enlarge; passing concisely over slight and unimportant events, but dwelling on such as are striking and considerable in their nature, or pregnant with consequences; preparing before hand our attention to them, and bringing them forth into the most full and conspicuous light.

2. The next thing he must attend to, is a proper selection of the circumstances belonging to those events which he chooses to relate fully. General facts make a slight impression on the mind. It is by means of circumstances and particulars properly chosen, that a narration becomes interesting and affecting to the reader. These give life, body, and colouring to the recital of facts, and enable us to behold them as present, and passing before our eyes. It is this employment of circumstances, in narration, that is properly termed historical painting.

528. The ancients employed one embellishment of history which the moderns have laid aside, namely, orations, which, on weighty occasions, they put into the mouths of some of their chief personages.

Obs. 1. By means of these, they diversified their history; they conveyed both moral and political instruction; and, by the opposite arguments which were employed, they gave us a view of the sentiments of different parties.

2. Orations may be an embellishment to history; such might also poetical compositions be, when introduced under the name of some of the personages mentioned in the narration, who were known to have possessed poetical talents. But neither can the one nor the other find a proper place in history.

3. Instead of inserting formal oratious, the method adopted by later writers seems better and more natural; that of the historian, on some great occasion, delivering, in his own person, the sentiments and reasonings of the opposite parties, or the substance of what was understood to be spoken in some public assembly; which he may do without the liberty of fiction.

529. The drawing of characters is one of the most splendid, and, at the same time, one of the most difficult ornaments of historical composition. For characters are generally considered as professed exhibitions of fine writing; and an historian who seeks to shine in them, is frequently in danger of carrying refinement to excess, from a desire of appearing very profound and penetrating. He brings together so many contrasts, and subtile oppositions of qualities, that we are rather dazzled with sparkling expressions, than entertained with any clear conception of a human character.

Obs. A writer who would characterise in an instructive and masterly manner, should be simple in his style, and should avoid all quaintness and affectation; at the same time, not contenting himself with giving us general outlines only, but descending into those peculiarities which mark a character in its most strong and distinctive features. The Greek historians sometimes give eulogiums, but rarely draw full and professed characters. The two aucient authors who have laboured this part of historical composition most, are Sallust and Tacitus.

530. As history is a species of writing designed for the instruction of mankind, sound morality should always reign in it. Both in describing, characters, and in relating transactions, the author should always show himself to be on the side of virtue.

Obs. 1. To deliver morai instruction in a formal manner, falls not within his province; but both as a good man, and as a good writer, we expect that he should evince sentiments of respect for virtue, and an indignation at flagrant vice.

2. To appear neutral and indifferent with respect to good and bad characters, and to affect a crafty and political, rather than a moral turn of thought, will, besides other bad effects, derogate greatly from the weight of historical composition, and will render the strain of it much more cold and uninteresting. We are always most interested in the transactions which are relating, when our sympathy is awakened by the story, when we become engaged in the fate of the actors. But this effect can never be produced by a writer who is deficient in sensibility and inoral feeling.

531. MEMOIRS denote a sort of composition, in which an author does not pretend to give full information of all the facts respecting the period of which he writes, but only to relate what he himself had access to know, or what he was concerned in, or what illustrates the conduct of some person, or the circumstances of some transaction, which he chooses for his subject.

Obs. 1. From a writer of memoirs, therefore, is not expected the same profound research, or enlarged information, as from a writer of history. He is not subject to the same laws of unvarying dignity and gravity. He may talk freely of himself; he may descend into the most familiar anecdotes. What is chiefly required of him is, that he be sprightly and interesting; and, especially, that he inform us of things that are useful and curious; by conveying to us some sort of knowledge worth the acquiring.

2. This is a species of writing very enticing to such as love to write concerning themselves, and conceive every transaction in which they had a share, to be of singular importance. There is no wonder, therefore, that a nation so sprightly as the French should, for more than two centuries past, have been pouring forth a whole flood of memoirs; the greatest part of which are little better than agreeable trifles.

3. The memoirs of the Duke of Sully, in the state in which they are now given to the public, have great merit, and deserve to be mentioned with particular praise. No memoirs approach more nearly to the usefulness, and the dignity of a full authentic history. They have the peculiar advantage, of giving us a beautiful display of two of the most illustrious characters which history presents; Sully himself, one of the ablest and most incorrupt ministers, and Henry IV. one of the greatest and most amiable princes of modern times. Dr. Blair says, that he knows few books more full of virtue and of good sense, than Sully's Memoirs; few, therefore, more proper to form both the heads and the hearts of such as are designed for public business, and action, in the world,