io6 On the 4 NCI EN? FORM 



powerful effects in the great interefls of republican ftates ? 

 Thefe are facts which cannot be denied. If fo, they ought 

 certainly to be recorded. But are they to be recorded in the 

 very general manner now mentioned ? Is the hiflorian to do no 

 more than {imply tell us, that certain perfons, upon certain oc- 

 cafions, delivered fpeeches, on one fide or other, in fome mo- 

 mentous debate ? A reader, entering with fpirit into the nar- 

 rative, would be defirous of knowing what arguments were em- 

 ployed ; for if an effect, worthy of being tranfmitted to pofte- 

 rity, was produced by fuch fpeeches, the arguments they con- 

 tained were, without doubt, its efficient caufe. Therefore, if 

 they are known, a faithful and intelligent writer will be very 

 loath to fupprefs them, otherwife he becomes unfaithful. The hi- 

 florian, then, muft give us an account of fpeakers, and of 

 fpeeches, and of the arguments which they contain ; but mufl 

 he proceed no farther ? The rigid feverity of modern criticifm, 

 and the laudable love of truth, fo peculiar to the moderns, pro- 

 nounce an inviolable prohibition. He muft not pretend to tell 

 us, nor even to conjecture the method or arrangement obferved 

 by the fpeaker, and much lefs the words of the fpeech. It is, 

 then, about the mere words of the fpeaker, or perhaps his me- 

 thod, that there is any difpute ; and all the charge brought 

 againft ancient hiftorians amounts to no more than that they 

 alter the expreflion, and give the arguments of a fpeaker in the 

 firft perfon, rather than in the third. If they had done, as has 

 been practifed in fome hiftories of England ; if they had told 

 us, that fome peer or commoner had faid That fuch and fuch 

 were his views and conclufions, there would have been no tranf- 

 greflion ; and LIVY and THUCYDIDES are no otherwife blamed, 

 than for exhibiting their fpeakers in the firft perfon : Yet, fure- 

 ly, the faithful hiftorian is a recorder of facts rather than of 

 words. HERODOTUS in one inftance, has done the very thing 

 which this criticifm requires. He has given us the inelegant, 

 though figurative language, fpoken by fome Perfian ambafladors 



at 



