az? 
romance. Dr. Robertfon’s hiftory of. 
America is an excellent, though not 
faultlefs, piece of compofition; yet, 
after the publication of Monuz’s H1s- 
‘TORY OF THE NEw WORLD, which, 
I underftand, is now in the prefs, it will 
probably be read more for the fiyle, than 
for the matter. 
-Afrer this courfe of reading, the ftudent 
will not be ill prepared for the hiftory cf 
his own country, which is, indeed. of 
more importance to an Englifhmaa, than 
the hiftory of. any, or of every, other 
nation; 2 am, however, fo uniafhionable, 
as not to join in the applaufes which have 
been unmeritediy lavifhed on 
Hume’s Hisrory, not merely becaufe 
it is a compilation, but becaute it is a bad 
compilation. Hume is the avowed enemy 
of the two principles which conduce 
moft to the happine!s of mankind—reli- 
gion, and liberty; and he who makes 
him the fiandard of his hiftoviecal faith, 
will embrace innumerable errors, arifing, 
not merely from defign, but from 
negligence *, Asa general! hifiory, Ra- 
pin’s + is greatly preferable. The fize 
nT 
tay 
tvtr, 

* Hume is well characterifed by '. 
¢ Emerging from the Sophift’s ichool, 
With fpirit eager, yet With Judgment cool, 
With fubtle fkill to iteal upon appilauie, 
And give faite vigour to rhe weaker caufe 
To paint a {pecious {cene with niceft 
Retouch the whole, and varnifh every patt— 
High on the pinnacle of fafhion placed, 
Hame fhone ihe idol of hiftcric tafe; 
Already pierced by Freedem’s fearching rays, 
The qwaxen tabric of his fame decays— 
When his falie tengue, averfe to Freedem’s 
€auie, 
Profanes the fpitit of her ancient Jaws. 
As Afia’s foothing opiate drugs, by fiealth 
Shakeevery facken’s nerve, and fap the health ; 
‘Thy. writings thus, with nexious charms refin'd, 
Seemine to {coth its ills, unnerve the mind; 
While the keen cunnirg of thy hand pretends 
To firike alone at Part,’s abje& ends. 
Wild as thy feeble metaphy fic page, 
Thy hifory rambles into iceptic rage 5 
_ Whoie giddy and fantaitic dreams.abufe 
A. Hampden’s virtue. and a Shakipeare’s mufe.”’ 
Ds. Furneaux, who was one of the beft hifto- 
rical critics of this age, took the pains of going 
chrough the whcle of Hume’s references, and 
afarmed, that on every great and bearing point, 
he had uniformly miftated the evidence; of 
this a moft ftriking proot may be found in the 
charaG@er of IM lton, where Whitlocke is made 
3 
arty 
to fpeak a language diametrically oppofite to 
his own. 
+ ‘(Nor fhelt thou want, Rapin, thy weill- 
ea:n'd praife, 
The fage Po.) bius thou of modern cays! 
Direétions in the Study of Hiftory. 
[ May, 
of Rapin’s hiftory generally aé€ts in 
terrorem to the fuperficial reader, and — 
yet, if he paifes over the ftate papers 
which are (injudicioufly 1 think) inferted 
-in the narrative, he will not find the tafk 
more laborious than the perufal of Hume. 
Perhaps a fill better courfe of Englifh 
hiftory would be, to take Dr. HENRY’s 
History for the early periods $; from 
the conciufion of which, he may proceed 
with Rapin to the dateof CLARENDON’S 
History; and, for the affairs of Scot- 
land, having recourfe to the claffical nar- 
rative of GEORGEBUCHANNAN, anc the 
elegant hiftory of QUEEN Mary, by 
the accomplifhed ROBERTSON. Cra- 
RENDON’s History, with his Life, are 
invaluable records; but his ftatements 
will, in fome infiances, be correéted by 
WHITLOCK’s WEMORIALS, which- 
every fiudent of hifory ought to read, 
and by the plain and manly, but inte- 
refting, Mrmorrs of the, ill-treated 
LupLow 
«€ From thefe the world will judge of men and 
books; 
‘* Not from your Burnets, Gldmixtons, and 
Cooks,” ; 
is the illiberal expreffion of Pope, whe 
alfo, it is well known, joined with 
Arbuthnot and Swift, in ridiculing the 
egotifm of Bifhop BuRNET’s Histo: y, 
in that well-known jeu-d -fprit, ** Me- 
moirs of P. P. Cierk of this Parith ;’? yet 
Bu net will continue to be read by every 
man who wifhes to inform himielf cer- 
rectly of the manners and circumftances 
of the times in which that excellent 
prelate, and really candid writer, lived ;— 
in fome few paffages his creduliry ap- 
pears to have been abufed, but he does 
mot in any initance, in my opinion, wil- 
fully’ mifreprefent a fai. Dat- 
RYMPLE’s MeEmorrs, and Mac- 
PHERSON’s History, are of fo fufpi- 
cious acharaéter, that a fair enquirer into 
truth will pay little regard to them; 
they are drawn from pcliuted fources, 

‘thy iword, thy pen, have both thy name 
endeard, , 
That join’d our arms, and this our ftory clear’d; 
Thy foreign hand difcharg’d th’ hiftorian’s truft, 
Uniway’a by party, and to Freedom juft,” 
HayLey, 
I have omitted to recommend the: old 
hitiorians, Froifiart, Hollingfhead, Baker, 
Speed, Stow, and even Lord Verulam, becaufe 
they are books which are not likely to fall in 
the way of general readers, and becaufe the 
periods of hittery which their works embrace, 
are really of lefs importance than thofe which 
approach nearer to our own times, 
and 

