S70 Reflcvions'dn History, S^c. 



party, every . prejudice may he removed by 

 perasing thtji pages Off the patient and candid 

 Rapih. It'hds been sarcastically observed by 

 Voltaire, that the best history of England was 

 written by a foreigner; but it should be recol- 

 lected that this foreigner was a student of the 

 English law, and previously well acquainted 

 with the principles of civil and religious liberty. 

 Whether Henry's history of Great Britain may 

 rot wrest the laurel from Rapin^ future ages will 

 probably determine. Perhaps the principal 

 defect in this excellent work may be too rigid 

 an adherence to a previously formed plan, which 

 separates subjects naturally united, unnecessa- 

 rily multiplies references, or occasions frequent 

 and tedious repetitions. 



Probably it will be found after diligent and 

 careful examination, that history best divides 

 itself, or that a correct retrospect of human 

 annals will suggest a just and proper distribution 

 of them. Mosheim has, perhaps, injudiciously 

 divided his ecclesiastical history into centuries, 

 and has thus rendered a subject in itself not 

 very fascinating, stiU less alluring. Historians 

 who mean to recommend the themes which 

 they have chosen, will fitid it their interest to 

 contract or dilate them as they are less or more 

 interesting or important, without any respect 

 to the periods of time, which they originally 



