Of HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. 85 



caufes and effects as difcernible in the hiftory as it before was 

 in the fcenes to which it refers. An hiflorian's bufinefs, ac- 

 cording to LUCIAN, is to relate things as they were done-*. 

 The reader's experience is thus increafed, as if he had been ac- 

 tually engaged in the affairs which he contemplates, and he be- 

 comes prepared for occurrences by which he would have been 

 otherwife embarrafTed \ . 



THE hiflorian's impartiality, which is a quality of the higheft 

 importance, is always proportioned to the flrength of his judg- 

 ment. Fidelity and impartiality are fometimes confounded, 

 though the one is an attribute of the heart, and the other of the 

 underftanding. An hiftorian of fidelity never means to de- 

 ceive ; an hiftorian that is impartial is not apt to be deceived 

 by circumflances that relate either remotely or immediately to 

 himfelf. In the relations of the former, we look for what is 

 ftriclly true ; in thofe of the latter, for fuch a flate of facls as 

 exhibits no prejudices into which we and others are unable to 

 enter. We condemn the want of fidelity, as leading to a de- 

 figned violation of truth ; but we pity the weaknefs that would 

 miflead involuntarily, and is biafled by circumftances that are 

 purely perfonal. LUCIAN reqxiires of the hiftorian to diveft 

 himfelf of every poflible ground of partiality ; " to have the in- 

 " difference of a ftranger in judging of his own works ; to be of 

 " no ftate ; to form his own laws ; to acknowledge no king, and 

 ;< to fpeak the truth without regard to the opinion of parties J." 



BUT judgmeiit not only divefts the hiftorian of any unjuftifi- 

 able attachment to what concerns himfelf, but enables him to 

 fee even indifferent objecls in their true light. By means of 

 this, he is difpofed neither to depreciate what is really important, 

 nor to over-rate what is really mean. In examining the proba- 

 bility 



* Ts 2u 'Zvyy^otlfw; tf/ev it, us ar^a^v nirnt. 



J- OCCASIONES autem redeunt in orbem, et quod olim erat cornmodum rurfus adhiberi- 

 et prodtfTe poteft. BACON di siug. Scient. lib. 2. c. 12. 



{, xx J awoAic, t/TO0(*o;j iSa<rlAi/To; 3 a TI ra$i n 

 at St> If of. 



