~ bid Pe ah cs 
M1. 12.) THE SECOND BOOK. ee 
12. I cannot likewise be ignorant of a form of writing 
which some grave and wise men have used, containing a 
scattered history of those actions which they have thought 
worthy of memory, with politic discourse and observation 
thereupon: not incorporate into the history, but separ- 
ately, and as the more principal in their intention; which 
kind of ruminated history I thing more fit to place amongst 
books of policy, whereof we shall hereafter speak, than 
amongst books of history. For it is the true office of his- 
tory to represent the events themselves together with the 
counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions 
thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judge- 
ment. But mixtures are things irregular, whereof no man 
can define. 
13. So also is there another kind of history manifoldly 
mixed, and that is history of cosmography: being com- 
pounded of natural history, in respect of the regions 
themselves ; of history civil, in respect of the habitations, — 
regiments, and manners of the people; and the mathe- 
matics, in respect of the climates and configurations to- 
wards the heavens: which part of learning of all others 
in this latter time hath obtained most proficience. For 
it may be truly affirmed to the honour of these times, 
and in a virtuous emulation with antiquity, that this great 
building of the world had never through-lights made in it, 
till the age of us and our fathers. For although they had 
knowledge of the antipodes, 
Nosque ubi primus equis Oriens afflavit anhelis, 
Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper, 
yet that mought be by demonstration, and not in fact; 
and if by travel, it requireth the voyage but of half the 
globe. But to circle the earth, as the heavenly bodies do, 
was not done nor enterprised till these later times: and 
H 
