10 The Duchess of Newcastle 



instructions; and there is some men of good under- 

 standings, as I have heard, that applaud very much 

 several histories, meerly for their elegant style, and 

 well-observed method; setting a high value upon 

 feigned orations, mystical designs, and fancied 

 policies, which are, at the best, but pleasant romances. 

 Others approve, in the relations of wars, and of 

 military actions, such tedious descriptions, that the 

 reader, tired with them, will imagine that there was 

 more time spent in assaulting, defending, and taking 

 of a fort, or a petty garison, then Alexander did 

 employ in conquering the greatest part of the world : 

 which proves, that such historians regard more their 

 own eloquence, wit and industry, and the knowledge 

 they believe to have of the actions of war, and of all 

 manner of governments, than of the truth of the 

 history, which is the main thing, and wherein consists 

 the hardest task, very few historians knowing the 

 transactions they write of, and much less the counsels, 

 and secret designs of many different parties, which 

 they confidently mention. 



Although there be many sorts of histories, yet these 

 three are the chiefest: (i) a general history. (2) A 

 national history. (3) A particular history. Which 

 three sorts may, not unfitly, be compared to the three 

 sorts of governments. Democracy, Aristocracy, and 

 Monarchy. The first is the history of the known parts 

 and people of the world; the second is the history 

 of a particular nation, kingdom or commonwealth. 

 The third is the history of the life and actions of some 

 particular person. The first is profitable for travellers, 

 navigators and merchants; the second is pernicious, 

 by reason it teaches subtil policies, begets factions, 

 not onely between particular families and persons, 

 but also between whole nations, and great princes, 



