84 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



tings of thofe kings, heroes or magiftrates of 

 whom we are fpeaking, by relating them either 

 entire or in abftract : and this is an advantage that 

 ought not to be negledted , for nothing gives 

 hiftory a greater air of veracity, or better proves 

 its authenticity. When with thefe precautions 

 the writer is Iparing in his accounts of wars, 

 when he avoids all long defcriptions of battles 

 and fieges, whkh, after all that can be faid, from 

 the time of Jofhua and Cyrus down to the pre- 

 fent age, ftrongly refemble each other, and arc 

 attended with a difguftful uniformity; and if 

 in (lead of thefe he explain the^ caufes of grand 

 revolutions and remarkable events, and efpeci- 

 ally if he be ftrictly true, judicious and impar- 

 tial in his relation, he may fafely indulge in the 

 pleafing reflection of having wrote a hiftory 

 worthy the approbation of the prefent age, and 

 of pofterity. 



XVI. Moft of the precepts we have here 

 given for the manner of writing hiftory, have an 

 intimate connexion with the manner of ftudying 

 it. Whoever would apply to this ftudy, ought 

 in the firft place to recollect all that we have 

 faid in the preceding chapter on chronology : 

 for if we do not carefully diftinguifh the feveral 

 eras, periods and epochs, we fhall never be 

 able to form in our minds a Ftgular and funda- 

 mental fyftem of hiftory, and to range each fact 

 in its proper place. The method that appears- 



to 



