96 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING [ll. 10. 



memorable were but tolerably reported as they pass, the 

 compiling of a complete history of times mought be the 

 better expected, when a writer should arise that were fit 

 for it : for the collection of such relations mought be 

 as a nursery garden, whereby to plant a fair and stately 

 garden, when time should serve. 



ii. There is yet another partition of history which 

 Cornelius Tacitus maketh, which is not to be forgotten, 

 specially with that application which he accoupleth it 

 withal, annals and journals : appropriating to the former 

 matters of estate, and to the latter acts and accidents of a 

 meaner nature. For giving but a touch of certain mag 

 nificent buildings, he addeth, Cum ex dignitale populi Ro- 

 mani repertum sit, res illustres annalibus, talia diurnis urbis 

 actis mandare. So as there is a kind of contemplative 

 heraldry, as well as civil. And as nothing doth derogate 

 from the dignity of a state more than confusion of de 

 grees, so it doth not a little imbase the authority of an 

 history, to intermingle matters of triumph, or matters of 

 ceremony, or matters of novelty, with matters of state. 

 But the use of a journal hath not only been in the history 

 of time, but likewise in the history of persons, and chiefly 

 of actions ; for princes in ancient time had, upon point 

 of honour and policy both, journals kept, what passed 

 day by day. For we see the chronicle which was read 

 before Ahasuerus, when he could not take rest, contained 

 matter of affairs indeed, but such as had passed in his 

 own time and very lately before. But the journal of 

 Alexander s house expressed every small particularity, 

 even concerning his person and court; and it is yet 

 an use well received in enterprises memorable, as expe 

 ditions of war, navigations, and the like, to keep diaries 

 of that which passeth continually. 



