Ite/exio7is mi History, ffc. ^S^ 



Floras nvglit deserve more praige, if the style 

 had be^n less ornamented, so the Roman his- 

 tory ^f Velleius Paterculus would have been 

 mo.'e highly esteemed for its judicious accu- 

 ri-cy, if the author had not bestowed the most 

 Tjauseous adulations on the gloomy despot 

 Tiberius, and on his hated tyrannical favorite 

 Sejanus. 



But the qualifications of ditferent historians 

 both ancient and modern, have been delineated 

 in so judicious and pleasing a manner by 

 Ilayjey, in his Poetical Essay on History, that 

 it seems the less necessary to enlarge on this 

 part of the subject. Few modern writers 

 have chosen to imitate the ancients in the iti- 

 vention of harangues for generals and statesmen. 

 Even the elegant and classical Littleton, by 

 adopting such a method, has not been able to 

 impart sufficient interest to bis history of Eng^ 

 land, during the reign of Henry the Second, 

 or to have prevented the perusal of his otlief- 

 wise useful and excellent work, from becom- 

 ing a tiresome occupation. Though the taitc of 

 modern times concurred with the discovery d( 

 printing, and the revival of literature, to re- 

 quire from the historian a less artificial, and a 

 less fictitious mode of writing, yet with no 

 better effect, with no greater advantage has 

 the argumentative b^ert sometimes substituted 

 z z 



