ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 
the modes and motives of human 
conduct. 
But how little of this have we 
reasen to expect in the best histo- 
ries that are extant? 
‘ Gazeties and chronicles record the 
battles, the state negociations, the 
public events of every country ; and 
who reigned and who succeeded ; 
who fought and who was beaten; 
who proposed terms of peace, and 
who made cession of territory, may 
accurately be known. But descend 
inio particulars, inquire into mo- 
tive-, search deeply into causes, ap- 
ply events to the only purposes for 
which we could wish them to be 
recorded, and all is obscurily and 
error. Fiction is substituted for 
truth, and imagination is made to 
supply the place of judgment. We 
no longer reason from what we 
know, but from what we conjec- 
ture, and from what we are told by 
those who sometimes conjecture and 
sometimes deceive. Histories, there- 
fore are, in general, little better 
than historical romances, a species 
of composition which is, perhaps 
unintentionally, the best satire upon 
the fanciful narratives and unfound- 
ed deductions of the professed wri- 
ters of that which is, with little jus- 
tice, called true history and real 
biography. We have,’ however, 
upoa some occasions, faithful me- 
moirs of statesmen, which are in- 
-valuable, as they develope the se- 
cret histories of courts, and lay 
open the intricacies of public af- 
fairs. 
We have also had writers, who, 
conscious of their own importance, 
or to gratify the curiusity of their 
cotemporaries, have published their 
own histories, and laid open, or pre- 
tended to lay open, the secret 
thoughts and private transactions of 
Vou, XLVI, 
1073 
their lives. ‘To whatever cause we 
- owe them, whether to the workings 
of yanity, or the consciousness of 
utility, we must peruse them with 
the satisfaction that by their means 
we are advanced so much the nearer, 
to the sources of trath. We no 
longer take facts from second hand 
narration: we place the penitent i 1 
his confessional, or the witness in 
the box from which he is to give his 
testimony, and we may safely put 
that reliance upon his statements, 
to which, from his character, and 
the mifiady of his narrative he is 
entitled. 
We need say nothing more to re~ 
commend the life of a celebrated an- 
thor, by himself, as a subject of 
much curiosity. The present memoir 
was undertaken towards the end of 
along career of laborious employ- 
ment as a dramatic writer, a moral 
essayist, a poct on moral and reli- 
gious subjects, a writer of many suc- 
cessful novels. It is not written to 
gratify idle curiosity, or to satisfy 
absurd vanity; but at the suggestion 
of the booksellers, who offered him 
500/. for the work. it isthe means 
of contributing. to the comfortable 
sustenance of an aged man of let. 
ters, who has served his country a3 
an author of much celebrity, as a 
faithful servant in some oilicial 
situations, and as au honest but un. 
successful negociator, upon one oc- 
casion of particular importance. 
In the last instance, he was, we 
think, most cruelly treated by his 
employers, and perhaps there are 
many who read his life that will feel 
with us, that the man who has de- 
voted his literary talents fo fame 
and to the world, and who has 
injured his fortune to serve ~ his 
country, Ought not to remain with- 
out a pension, anil (9 be found at the 
32 ; agg 
