56ft'' Bcflexions on Hisf/ory, 8(c. 



tonGs/:it'mayibe impossible for future writers 

 to relate ithe aimais [df . thein progenitors. Jilut 

 as in > surveying a landscape, the eye may^be 

 too near as well as too distant to discover all 

 its beauties ; so perhaps, though the proper ma- 

 terial: fbn history cannot ibe tbo soon collected, 

 yctr frequently : some little time should elapse 

 before they are ranged in .order, Coiitpmpo- 

 ratics are apt to dwell upon minutise, which 

 render their accounts tedious, which may 

 scarcely be interesting at the time, which every 

 day : grow less important, and which > ^ve not 

 w^orthy io be remembered, unless -they eluci- 

 <iste subsequent momentous occurrences. Cer- 

 taunly fhe.history of, interesting and, important 

 xevoliitibns should not be published till, the 

 passions and prejudices excited by the <^ontest 

 are worn away, and: reason is enipowered to 

 pass anr impartial decision on the • various 

 merits of the cause. As historians assume the • 

 office of instructing posterity, so they should 

 particularly^ be\vare of being influenced by 

 party:S,pitit.jiio'-> ed h 



If "in, his history •of,tbe.Peloponnesi^i1i war, 

 Thucydides has not excited. for his countrymen 

 the Athenians, a greater degree of interest than 

 their ill directed ambition may seem to deserve, 

 yet it is generally acknowledged that Tacitus 

 and Siuetonius, who were nearly contemporaries 



