62 THE BEE, OR Jan. IlJ 



it may, without much greater improbality, be protraft- I 

 ed to five weeks. A natural train of incidents can 

 fcarcelj be expeded from a ftory accommodated to the 

 ftria rules of the ftage : They muft be dull, few, and 

 uniform, becaufe they are all in fome meafure within 

 view, and comprehended at firft fight ; and in place of 

 incident, there muft be fpun out long harrangues of 

 common place morality. Few or none but thofe who are 

 critically converfant with controverfies of this kind, ob- 

 ferve infringements of time and place, but are all offend- 

 ed with a want of probability in the management of 

 the plot. I have made thefe obfervations, as Shakef- 

 pear is more remarkable for adhering to unity of aftion 

 than to the other two ; the one is the offspring of genius 

 alone, the other of art. 



To he continued. 



On the Hijlory of Authors by Pro/eJ/ton. 



fix eft hiftoria literarum, atque certe hifloria niundi, fi hac pane fuerit 

 deftituta, non abfimilis conferi poflit ftaluae Polyphemi evitt teulo ; 

 nam ea pars imaginii defit, quae ingenium et indolem perfonae maxime 

 refcrat.. £ac. di Ang. lib. 11. eaj>. h. 



No. I. 



Civil hiftory, the regifter of human calamities and 

 <^i'imes,has been amply, if not always happily treated ; 

 while the hiftory of literature, which may be confidered 

 as forming the annals of the human underftanding, lias 

 been hitherto meagre and incomplete. The reafon why 

 men of letters have thus treated the fource of their fame 

 with fuch ungrateful negleft, it may perhaps be diffi- 

 cult to affign. The caules which affedt the progrefs of 

 letters, are more remote from common apprehenfion 

 than thofe which operate political changes. Peihaps 

 tins difTiculty might have deterred, and perhaps hifto. 



