who is under the power of a real and a strong passion; and we shall always find his language unaffected and simple.

Illus. 1. It may be animated, indeed, with bold and strong figures, but it will have no ornament or finery. He is not at leisure to follow out the play of imagination. His mind being wholly seized by one object, which, has heated it, he has no other aim, but to represent that in all its circumstances, as strongly as he feels it.

2. This must be the style of the orator when he would be pathetic; and this will be his style, if he speaks from real feeling; bold, ardent, simple. No sort of description will then succeed, but what is written "fervente calamo." If he stay till he can work up his style, and polish and adorn it, he will infallibly cool his own ardour; and then he will touch the heart no more. His composition will become frigid; it will be the language of one who describes, but does not feel.

3. We must take notice, that there is a great difference between painting to the imagination, and painting to the heart. The one may be done coolly and at leisure: the other must always be rapid and ardent. In the former, art and labour may be suffered to appear; in the latter, no effect cau follow, unless it seem to be the work of nature only.

518. In the sixth place, avoid interweaving any thing of a foreign nature with the pathetic part of a discourse.

Obs. 1. Beware of all digressions, which may interrupt or turn aside the natural course of the passion, when once it begins to rise and swell.

2. Sacrifice all beauties, however bright and showy, which would divert the mind from the principal object, and which would amuse the imagination, rather than touch the heart.

3. Hence comparisons are always dangerous, and generally quite improper, in the midst of passion.

4. beware even of reasoning unseasonably; or at least, of carrying on a long and subtile train of reasoning, on occasions when the principal aim is to excite warm emotions.

519. In the last place, never attempt prolonging the pathetic too much. Warm emotions are too violent to be lasting. Study the proper time of making a retreat; of making a transition from the passionate to the calm tone; in such a manner, however, as to descend without falling, by keeping up the same strain of sentiment that was carried on before, though now expressing it with more moderation.

Obs. Above all things, beware of straining passion too far; of attempting to raise it to unnatural heights. Preserve always a due regard to what the hearers will bear; and remember, that he who stops not at the proper point; who attempts to carry them farther, in passion, than they will follow him, destroys his whole design. By endeavouring to warm them too much, he takes the most effectual method of freezing them completely.

520. Concerning the PERORATION OR CONCLUSION, it is needless to say much, because it must vary so considerably, according to the strain of the preceding discourse.

Obs. 1. Sometimes the whole pathetic part comes in most properly at the peroration. Sometimes, when the discourse has been entirely argumentative, it is fit to conclude with summing up the arguments, placing them in one view, and leaving the impression of them full and strong on the mind of the audience. For the great rule of a conclusion, and what nature obviously suggests, is, to place, that last on which we choose that the strength of our cause should rest.

2. In sermons, inferences from what has been said, make a common conclusion. But inferences to rise naturally should so much agree with the strain of sentiment throughout the discourse, as not to break the unity of the sermon. For inferences, how justly soever they may be, deduced from the doctrine of the text, yet have a bad effect, if, at the conclusion of a discourse, they introduce some subject altogether new, and turn off our attention from the main object to which the preacher had directed our thoughts. They appear, in this case, like excrescences jutting out from the body, and forming an unnatural addition to it; they tend to enfeeble the impression which the composition, as a whole, is calculated to make.

Scholium. In every discourse, it is a matter of importance to hit the precise time of concluding, so as to bring our subject just to a point; neither ending abruptly and unexpectedly; nor disappointing the expectation of the hearers, when they look for the close; and continuing to hover round and round the conclusion, till they become heartily tired of us. We should endeavour to go off with a good grace; not to end with a languishing and drawling sentence; but to close with dignity and spirit, that we may leave the minds of the hearers warm; and dismiss them with a favourable impression of the subject and of the speaker.

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORICAL WRITING.

521. As it is the office of an orator to persuade, it is that of an HISTORIAN to record truth for the instruction of mankind. This is the proper object and end of history, from which may be deduced many of the laws relating to its composition; and if this object were always kept in view, it would prevent many of the errors into which persons are apt to fall concerning this species of composition..

Obs. As the primary end of history is to record truth, impartiality, fidelity, and accuracy are the fundamental qualities of an historian. He must neither be a panegyrist nor a satirist. He must not enter into faction, nor give scope to affection; but, contemplating past events and characters with a cool dispassionate eye, must present to his readers a faithful copy of human nature.

522. Historical composition is understood to comprehend under it, annals, memoirs, lives. But these are its inferior subordinate species, on which we shall hereafter make some reflections, when we shall have first considered what belongs to a regular work of history. Such a work is chiefly of two kinds. Either the entire history of some state or kingdom through its different revolutions, such as Livy's Roman History; Hume's History of England; or the history of some one great event, or some portion or period of time which may be considered as making a whole by itself; such as Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, Davila's History of the Civil Wars of France, or Clarendon's of those of England; Robertson's History of Charles V.

Obs. 1. In the conduct and management of his subject, the first attention requisite in an historian, is to give it as much unity as possible; that is, his history should not consist of separate unconnected parts merely, but should be bound together by some connecting principle, which shall make on the mind the impression of something that is one, whole and entire.

2. In general histories, which record the affairs of a whole nation or empire throughout several ages, this unity will be more imperfect. Yet even there, some degree of it can be preserved by a skilful writer. For though the whole, taken together, be very complex, yet the great constituent parts of it form so many subordinate wholes, when taken by themselves; each of which can be treated both as complete within itself, and as connected with what goes

before and follows.

Illus. 1. In the history of a monarch, for instance, every reign should have its own unity; a beginning, a middle, and an end, to the system of affairs; while, at the same time, we are taught to discern how that system of affairs rose from the preceding, and how it is inserted into what follows. We should be able to trace all the secret links of the chain, which binds together remote and seemingly unconnected events.

2. In some kingdoms of Europe, it was the plan of many successive princes to reduce the power of their nobles; and during several reigns, most of the leading actions had a reference to this end. In other states, the rising power of the Commons influenced, for a tract of time, the course and connection of public affairs.

3. Among the Romans, the leading principle was a gradual extension of conquest, and the attachment of universal empire. The continual increase of their power, advancing towards this end from small beginnings, and by a sort of regular progressive plan, furnished to Livy a happy subject for historical unity, in the midst of a great variety of transactions.

523. In order to fulfil the end of history, the author must study to trace to their springs the actions and events which he records. Two things are especially necessary for his doing this successfully; a thorough acquaintance with human nature, and political knowledge, or acquaintance with government. The former is necessary to account for the conduct of individuals, and to give just views of their character; the latter to account for the revolutions of government, and the operation of political causes on public affairs. Both must concur, in order to form a completely instructive historian.

524. The first requisites of historical narration, are clearness, order, and due connection. To attain these, the historian must be completely master of his subject; he must see the whole as at one view; and comprehend the chain and dependence of all its parts, that he may introduce every thing in its proper

place; that he may lead us smoothly along the tract of affairs which are recorded, and may always give us the satisfaction of seeing how one event arises out of another. Without this, there can be neither pleasure nor instruction, in reading history.

Obs. Much for this end will depend on the observance of that unity in the general plan and conduct, which has already been recommended. Much too will depend on the proper management of transitions. This forms one of the chief ornaments of this kind of writing, and is one of the most difficult in execution. Nothing tries an historian's abilities more, than so to lay his train beforehand, as to make us pass naturally and agreeably from one part of his subject to another; to employ no clumsy and awkward junctures; and to contrive ways and means of forming some union among transactions, which seem to be most widely separated from one another.

525. In the next place, as history is a very dignified species of composition, gravity must always be maintained in the narration. There must be no meanness nor vulgarity in the style; no quaint, nor colloquial phrases; no affectation of pertness, or of wit. The smart, or the sneering manner of telling a story, is inconsistent with the historical character.

Obs. On occasions where a light and ludicrous anecdote is prop er to be recorded, it is generally better to throw it into a note, than to hazard becoming too familiar by introducing it into the body of the work.

528. But an historian may possess these qualities of being perspicuous, distinct, and grave, and may notwithstanding be a dull writer; in which case we shall reap little benefit from his labours.

Obs. We shall read him without pleasure; or, most probably, we shall soon give over reading him at all. He must therefore study to render his narration interesting; which is the quality that chiefly distinguished a writer of genius and eloquence.

527. Two things are especially conducive to this; the first is, a just medium in the conduct of narration, between a rapid or crowded recital of facts, and a prolix detail. The former embarrasses, and the latter tires us.

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