86 ESSAY upon the PRINCIPLES 



bility of dubious events, ha is not fo credulous as to acquiefce 

 in flight evidence, nor does he flubbornly reject fuch as fliould 

 convince him. His mind, like a faithful mirror, reflects every 

 thing precifely as it is feen. As his facts are genuine, fo his ob- 

 fervations will be pertinent. Knowing, alfo, that men refufe 

 the praife that is too eagerly courted, he will introduce his own 

 remarks with caution, and will chufe rather to furprife with 

 depth in the body of his detail, than to difappoint expectations 

 that he had formally fummoned. My Lord BACON'S obferva- 

 tion upon this part of the character of an hiflorian is judicious 

 and happily exprefled : " Licet enim hifloria quaeque prudentior 

 ; politicis praeceptis et monitis veluti impregnata fit, tamen 

 ' fcriptor ipfe fibi obfletricari non debet*." 



JUDGMENT, then, in the mind of an hiflorian, befides giving 

 the other powers their due value, is itfelf the foundation of ma- 

 ny capital qualities. It enables him to chufe and to arrange his 

 fubject, fo as to do moft juflice to his own abilities, and to give 

 mofl inflruction to his reader. It fecures the fairnefs of his de- 

 cifions, in fpite of thofe perfonal connections with which mofl 

 men are blinded. It fuppofes fagacity in his opinions as to 

 pafl things that are doubtful, and future things that are con- 

 tingent. While it makes him view objects as they are, and fe- 

 cures his reader againfl the impertinence of obfervations that 

 are either trifling or mifplaced, it >eprefles the weak vanity that 

 leflens the merit which it means to exaggerate. 



To one or other of the three powers, of feeling, of imagina- 

 tion, or of judgment, (it fliould feem), all the qualities of a 

 great hiflorian are to be referred. Induflry and preliminary in- 

 formation hare been allowed to be neceflary ; but thefe tend 

 only to do juflice to thofe primary powers. Nothing has been 

 faid as to the principle of tafle ; becaufe, according to the ob- 

 fervation of the ingenious author of The eflay xipon the fub- 

 lime and beautiful, this is, in reality, no diflinct power, but is 

 the refult of the whole of the powers fpecified when combined. 



The 



* BACON de Aug. Scient. 1. 2. c. 10. 



