

Of HISTORICAL COMPOSITION. in 



and with equal authority j fo that it requires more patience and 

 difcernment than belong to a great many readers, to diftinguifh 

 what ought to be received with immediate belief, from thofe 

 things that depend for their evidence on the conjectural judg- 

 ment of the narrator. Hiftorians of another kind, (and this, 

 in general, is the practice of XENOPHON and LIVY), give you 

 their fads and their conjectures apart; Their facts conftitute 

 the narrative, and their views of characters and motives are 



^K 



thrown into thofe fpeeches, which, as we have feen, are not of- 

 fered by the writers themfelves as of equal authority with their 

 relation of external events. 



I HAVE thus endeavoured to point out the caufe of the dif- 

 ference, Mated at the beginning of this difcourfe, between the 

 ancient and modern forms of hiftorical compofition, and have 

 fuggefted fome conliderations by which the practice of antiqui- 

 ty may be juftified. The fame confiderations do not extend to 

 the hiflory of modern European nations ; for the practice could 

 not be fupported by the fame views of probability. In the re- 

 volutions of modern nations, public fpeaking has been of little 

 importance. We have not now any funeral orations for politi- 

 cal purpofes ; other circumftances of military difcipline have 

 fuperfeded the ufe of allocution ; our ambafladors have little 

 occafion for rhetorical powers ; and we may add, that the deli- 

 berations of the Britifh parliament are not much influenced by 

 the oratory of even the mod eloquent fpeakers. We may alfo 

 obferve, that the object of modern hiflorians feems a good deal 

 different from that of the ancient : They are become more phi- 

 lofophical ; they difcover more accuracy in explaining caufes, 

 and more penetration in deducing effects. Oratory was the fa- 

 fhion in ancient times ; philofophy is the fafhion at prefent. 

 The ancient hiflorian was often defirous of exciting fympathe- 

 tic feelings, and of pleafing the fancy ; the modern hiftorian is 

 chiefly defirous of informing the underftanding. Both methods 



are 



