HIS 
He imist also observe great judgment in the 
ordinance and disposition of events and 
their circumstances, so as to interest the 
reader, and let him into all his thoughts and 
views, by making his persons act as their 
character and temper inclined them ; dis- 
covering their manners, sentiments, designs, 
motives, and operations, as they really stand 
in a necessary dependence upon each other, 
and with so natural a connection, as to show 
nothing out of its place. His transitions, in 
which consists the great art of narration, 
and one of its principal beauties, must be 
natural and easy, arising from the difference 
of subject rather than expression. He must 
make a wise and judicious choice of circum- 
stances, such as are proper to enlarge and 
improve the ideas of things, and to strike 
that light and colour upon them which most 
easily attracts belief and engages the mind ; 
and must for that purpose always observe 
a due mixture of great and little circum- 
stances, neither of which must be carried 
beyond nature, or be so minute, low, or 
frivolous, as to debase his subject. He 
must not only recite the bare events and 
actions of men, but also lay open the mo- 
tives and principles from which they took 
their rise, and upon which they proceeded 
to their final issues. He must lay open the 
hearts of the actors, let his reader into the 
most important secrets of their councils 
and designs, and oblige him with a sight of 
those secret springs which moved them to 
enterprizes, and of the causes of their suc- 
cess or miscarriage. He must be very 
sparing and cautious in the use of descrip- 
tions, which are to be introduced so far only 
as they serve to illustrate things that are 
essential to the main subject, and to enliven 
the narration : and even in that case they 
must be succinct and elegant. The fre- 
quent use of harangues are disapproved of 
by many judicious persons ; for these long 
formal harangues ot generals to their sol- 
diers, when in the presence of the enemy, 
and ready to enter upon action, winch we 
find in many historians, are undoubtedly 
not only unnatural and improbable, but 
contrary to the truth of history. Never- 
theless, a short speech suited to the sub- 
ject, made by a person of eminent charac- 
ter, has it ^proper beauty, and animates a 
narration. A judicious historian ought not 
to admit any portraits into his work but 
those of the greatest persons, and such as 
are principally interested, and have the 
chief hand in affairs; and these must be 
real, natural, and truly resembling their 
HIS 
originals ; expressive of their genius, the 
qualities of the head and heart, rather than 
descriptive of the external form of his per- 
sonages. When such are finished with a 
masterly hand, with true judgment and 
success, they are not only great ornaments 
and embellishments in history, but of use to 
strip the hearts of men of their disguises, to 
lay open all their secret folds, and disclose 
the real springs of actions. It is a great 
fault in an historiographer to abound too 
much in reflections of his own; he therefore 
must not turn philosopher or moralist indif- 
ferently upon all occasions ; for every man 
desires to be free in his judgment of the 
facts represented to him, and the conse- 
quences he is to draw from them, in which 
consists the greatest pleasure of the reader. 
But if an author should throw in, or mingle 
reflections of his own with his story, they 
must be such as arise naturally from the 
subject, and contain a great and noble sense 
in a few words ; they must not be too fine 
spun or studied, nor have more brightness 
than solidity, but appear rather to be the 
reasoning of a wise statesman than the affec- 
tation of a declaimer ; nor must they be too 
frequent, or too loose and disjointed, but 
be enamelled in the body of the work. Di- 
gressions, if made with judgment, and not 
too wide and foreign from the subject, have 
also their proper grace and ornament in 
history ; as they give an agreeable variety 
to the narration, and relieve the mind of the 
reader; but they must be introduced by 
the historian with an artful hand and great 
address ; they must bear an alliance and 
connection with the purport of the history, 
and their length must be proportionably 
greater or less, as they are more nearly or 
remotely allied to the capital point of the 
story. 
HISTORY is a connected recital of past 
or present events. 
If the value of each department of know- 
ledge is to be ascertained by the esteem 
in which it is held by the generality of 
readers, a place of distinguished honour 
must be assigned to history. Gratifying 
that curiosity, which is innate in the mind 
of man, it is equally delightful to those 
whose intellect is just dawning, and to those 
whose faculties are matured by the lapse 
of time and the process of cultivation. 
Comparatively few have a relish for ab- 
stract speculations ; but almost all are de- 
lighted by the display of facts. By the 
pictures, which are exhibited in a faithful 
narration the fancy is gently excited, arid 
