HUME. 217 



rule, " Historia tanto robustior quanto verier,"* he oc- 

 casionally adorned and enlivened his page by excursions 

 into the field, to the historian forbidden, of fancy ; 

 and either perverted or forgot the facts of the true 

 story. Sometimes he overlooked inconsistencies in 

 matters within his own knowledge, as when he made 

 Charles I. be disturbed in his sleep by the erection of 

 the scaffolding for his execution, when he is proved to 

 have known that Charles suffered by cold in the walk 

 across the park from St. James's, where he really slept. f 

 As for his picturesque description of sudden deaths and 

 female miscarriages being occasioned by the execution, 

 and of equally violent effects produced by the Restora- 

 tion, these appear to be mere fancy pieces, no authority 

 whatever being cited to support them. 



If from the cardinal virtues of fidelity, research, and 

 accuracy, we turn to the great but secondary accom- 

 plishments of the historian, we can scarcely find ex- 

 pressions too strong to delineate the merit of Mr. 

 Hume. His style is altogether to be admired. It is 

 not surpassed by Livy himself. There is no pedantry 

 or affectation, nothing forced or far-fetched. It flows 

 smoothly and rapidly, according to the maxim of the 

 critic, " Currere debet et ferri."J It seems to have the 

 " lactea ubertas " of Livy, with the " immortalis 

 velocitas"|| of Sallust. Nothing can be more narra- 



* Quinct. ii. 4, 2. 



t His marks are upon Lord Herbert's narrative in the Advocates' 

 Library at Edinburgh ; but he prefers citing Walker's ' History of 

 the Independents,' which contains the false statement, although the 

 very next page mentions his coining from St. James's. 



J Quinct. ix. 4, 18. Ib. x. 1, 32. || Ib. x. 1, 102. 



