ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 55 



the times of the actions themselves, they are, in that case, to be 

 greatly suspected of partiality or prejudice. But, as it is usual for 

 opposite parties to publish relations of the same transactions, 

 they, by this means, open the way to truth, which lies betwixt 

 the two extremes : so that, after the heat of contention is allayed, 

 a good and wise historian may hence be furnished with matter 

 for a more perfect history. 



As to the deficiency in these three kinds of history, doubtless 

 many particular transactions have been left unrecorded, to the 

 great prejudice, in point of honor and glory, of those kingdoms 

 and states wherein they passed. But to omit other nations, we 

 have particular reason to complain to your Majesty of the im- 

 perfection of the present history of England, in the main con- 

 tinuance of it, and the partiality and obliquity of that of Scot- 

 land, in the most copious and recent account that has been left 

 us. As this island of Great Britain will now, as one united 

 monarchy, descend to future ages, we cannot but deem it a 

 work alike honorable to your Majesty, and grateful to posterity, 

 that exploits were collected in one history, in the style of the 

 ancient Testament, which hands down the story of the ten 

 tribes and the two tribes as twins together. If the greatness 

 of the undertaking, however, should prove any obstacle to its 

 perfect execution, a shorter period of time, fraught with the 

 greatest interest, occurs from the junction of the Roses to the 

 union of the two kingdoms a space of time which to me ap- 

 pears to contain a crowd of more memorable events than ever 

 occurred in any hereditary monarchy of similar duration. For 

 it commences with the conjoint adoption of a crown by arms, 

 and title, an entry by battle, and a marriage settlement. The 

 times which follow, partaking of the nature of such beginnings, 

 like waters after a tempest, full of workings and swellings, 

 though without boisterous storms, being well navigated by the 

 wisdom of the pilots one of the most able of his predecessors. 

 Then succeeded the reign of a king, whose policy, though rather 

 actuated by passion than counsel, exercised great influence 

 upon the courts of Europe, balancing and variably inclining 

 their various interests ; in whose time, also, began that great 

 change of religion, an action seldom brought on the stage. 

 Then the reign of a minor. Then an attempt at usurpation, 

 though it was but as a " febris ephemera " : then the reign of a 

 queen, matched with a foreigner: then the reign of a queen, 



