ESSAY upon the PRINCIPLES 



minate the fubject of narration, without dazzling the reader's 

 eye. 



THE pofition now advanced, as to the period in fociety at which 

 hiftorical narration appears in its moil improved form, will be 

 found to be juftified by facts. In every literary sera, the poet 

 has been the firft to offer the fruits of his genius, and to court 

 the difpofers of that approbation which is the reward of his 

 excellence. Before even the remotefl period to which any hu- 

 man record reaches, HOMER had difplayed the wonderful 

 powers of the Greek language ; and, by his own practice, had 

 fixed thofe principles upon which future artifts were to per- 

 form, and future critics to judge. At Rome, the poems, not 

 only of Liyius ANDRONICUS, Accius, and PACUVIUS, but 

 of PLAUTUS and TERENCE, had attracted the notice of their 

 countrymen, before any tolerable profe compofition appeared. 

 Upon the revival of letters, when thofe arts were cherifhed at 

 Florence, which the Turks had banifhed from Greece, the hifto- 

 ry of literature prefents the fame appearances. The Genius of 

 Italy, after numbering for ages, was firft awakened by DANTE 

 and PETRARCH. In France, a tafte for the beauties of profe 

 was ufhered in by the poems of MALHERBE. In Britain, too, 

 that elegance which has diftingiiimed the compofitions of fome 

 of our countrymen, was firft difcernible in the works of our 

 poets. The affertion, then, as to the period of hiftorical ge- 

 nius, feems juftified by facts. In every region in which literature 

 has as yet flourifhed, capital productions in hiftory have an- 

 nounced the maturity, though they could not fecure the conti- 

 nuance of claffical tafte. Like a bird of paflage, impatient of 

 the rigours of every climate, this is ever ready to change its 

 abode. 



THOSE paflages, produced now and formerly from TACITUS, 

 though fraught with beauties of the firft order, enable us to 

 form but an imperfect judgment of his merits. We are, in- 

 deed, fairly entitled to infer, that the genius which gave ex- 



iftence 



