!00 VOLTAIRE. 



ing occurrences were to be recorded, became tedious, 

 and only loaded the memory with useless facts, when 

 matters of usual occurrence, or of inferior interest, 

 were to be related ; yet the historian's duty was under- 

 stood to require that none should be left out. Next, 

 there was no account given of the manners and habits 

 of the people, the bearing of events upon their con- 

 dition, the influence of men's character upon their 

 fortunes ; it was even very rare to find the conduct of 

 nations described, unless in so far as it might be con- 

 nected with the conduct of some distinguished indivi- 

 duals ; and generally speaking, all that happened to a 

 people while enjoying the blessings of peace their 

 arts, their commerce, their education, their wealth, 

 their prosperity or decline, their civilization all was 

 either wholly neglected, or passed with scarcely any 

 notice, while the most careful attention was given to 

 every detail of battles, and sieges, and individual ex- 

 ploits in arms, of which the importance was often 

 wholly insignificant, and the interest died with the re- 

 lation. There had at all times, indeed, been some 

 pictures, or rather descriptions, expressly devoted to 

 figuring forth the manners and customs of a particular 

 people. Caesar had thus described, in a portion of his 

 * Commentaries/ both the Germans and the Britons : 

 Tacitus had written a work expressly on the German 

 manners and character. But these were either works 

 apart from history, or episodes in its course ; the his- 

 tory of a nation was never considered to be anything 

 but the story of its wars and its rulers ; and, what is 

 still more material, these works, excellent and valuable 

 as they are, only give a description, and not a narrative ; 



