Of HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. 



FROM all the obfervations made, and all the paflages quoted, 

 we may infer, that TACITUS was eminently endowed with that 

 judgment, which, befides giving the feeling and the fancy of the 

 hiftorian their due value, is itfelf the foundation of many capital 

 qualities. This enabled him, we find, to chufe and to arrange 

 his fubject, fo as to do moft juftice to his own abilities, and 

 to give moil inftruction to his reader. It fecured the fairnefs 

 of his decifions, in fpite of thofe perfonal connections wuh 

 which mod men are blinded. It made him fagacious in his 

 opinions as to paft things that are doubtful, and as to future 

 things that are contingent. While it enabled him to fee ob- 

 jects as they were, and infured his reader againft the imper- 

 tinence of obfervations that are either trifling or mifplaced, it 

 alfo reprefled the weak vanity, which lefTens the merit that it 

 means to exaggerate. 



As the power of judgment comes late to maturity, both in 

 the individual and in the (late, fo hiftory, in its moft improved 

 form, is never one of the earlieft efforts of national genius. 

 The perfection of the poet's art depends chiefly upon the acute- 

 nefs of his feeling and the vivacity of his fancy. In the im- 

 provement of thefe powers, little or nothing is left to the pof- 

 fefTor's induflry, while judgment is fortified by the recollection 

 of paft errors, and ftrengthens flowly by repeated trials. As 

 the improvement of national wifdom, too, is the fruit of na- 

 tional experience ; fo hiftory cannot flourifh but where intereft- 

 ing facts prefent themfelves, and where their value is diftinctly 

 {een. Though thofe powers which ferve to embellim truth 

 muft not be extinguifhed in the hiftorian, yet judgment muft 

 prefcribe the laws by which they are to be controlled. Be- 

 tween the emotions of mind, and the refpective impulfe that is- 

 the caufe of each, a fteady proportion is thus preferved. As 

 too much brilliancy in any object prevents it from being di- 

 ftinctly feen; fo the brightnefs of the reader's fancy muft illu- 

 minate 





