134 History. 



cellence of the style employed by the former. It 

 is not intended to institute a comparison with re- 

 spect to this particular, between the best ancient 

 models of history and those of modern times. 

 But it can be doubted by none that the first class of 

 historical works produced in the last age far trans- 

 cend in excellenceof manner, every specimen in this 

 department of composition, which, for fifteen cen- 

 turies before, had been given to the world. 



The first English historian who seems to have 

 paid any attention to style, and who rises to any 

 thing like the dignity of this species of composition, 

 is Lord Clarendon. The histories which pre- 

 ceded his, though many of them invaluable as 

 repositories of facts, were dull and uninteresting 

 compilations, thrown together without taste or 

 skill, and apparently without even an attempt to 

 excel with respect to style. He had the honour 

 of introducing an higher kind of historical writing 

 among his countrymen; and his work may doubt- 

 less be pronounced to have formed a remarkable 

 era in this branch of English literature. Though 

 his sentences are tediously long and involved, and 

 his narratives equally prolix and perplexed; yet 

 he wrote remarkably well for his time, and de- 

 serves an honourable place among the improvers 

 of historical style. After Clarendon, towards 

 the close of the seventeenth century, came Bishop 

 Burnet, w T ho, though inferior to his predecessor 

 in dignity, went beyond him in sprightliness and 

 perspicuity. He was accused of being partial to 

 the houses of Orange and Hanover; but with re- 

 spect to manner, and general authenticity, he is 

 entitled to much praise, and certainly contributed 

 something to the improvement of English histori- 

 cal style. 



On entering the eighteenth century, Rapin ap- 

 pears as the firs!: respectable historian. His His-> 



