circumftantiating all Events. Too many Particulars opprefs and fatigue the Mind; and therefore we should know how to feparate thofe that are of Neceflity or Importance, from those that are not. We must confult Lucian, in his Difcourfe of History, who is a great Mafter of this Secret. Above all, we must learn to fuftain great and noble Circumstances with bolder and brighter Figures, (which is one of the Excellencies of Livy) fo as to distinguish them by fome more lively Colour, and to make them immediately, ftrike the Eye. But ftill the Narration will not be compleat, unless to the Circumstances of Things we joyn the Motives of Actions; for the Motives, rightly touch'd, make it as fine and curious, as the Circumstances make it natural and probable.

XV.

To recite the Actions of Men without entring into their Motives, is not to compofe a Hiftory, but a Gazette, which delivers the bare Events of Things, and does not trace them to their Source. Cafar has been blam'd in this Regard, who barely tells us his Marches, his Encampments, and his Battles, amitting the Reafons upon which they were undertaken; and thus his whole Narration may feem too plain and lifelefs, and to have more of the Body, than the Soul of Things: He may be properly faid to write only Memoirs. But 'tis by the curious Difplay of the Motives upon which Men act, that Hiftory becomes nice and refin'd, and by which alone it fupports it felf, efpecially in Affairs of the greatest Confequence. It is but playing about the Surface of Things, to give a naked Relation of Fact,

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without

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in rebus

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without afcending to Caufes and Principles. Rerum ra- Reafon will (fays Tully) that, as in Affairs, tio vult, ut & the Defign precedes the Execution, fo an quoniam Hiftorian fhould give an Account, not of "bare Events, but of the Grounds upon which "they ftand; and that in reporting what is primùm, done, he fhould explain how, and for what deinde a Reafon it was done. Tacitus obferves, (almost &ta, poftea eventus ex- in the fame Words) "That it is the Bufinefs petantur," of Hiftory, not only to recount the final "Iffues of Things, but to discover their Rise geftis de- and Original, and to touch upon their true folùm quid Motives. 'Tis by this fole Excellence that atum, aut an Hiftorian may make himself confiderable, ditum fit, and appear with Diftinction and Figure: Nor fed quomo- is there any Part of a Narration fo pregnant do, & cum de eventu of Delight, as that which lays open the Heart dicatur, of the Perfons, and difclofes all the important caufæ ex- Secrets of their Counfels and Defigns. And, plicentur as nothing can make an History more agreeCic. de able, fo there is no celebrated Hiftorian, but has attempted to fignalize himself in this Ut non mo- Character. For what can ftrike with fo much do cafus e- Advantage on human Curiofity, as the letwentufque ting us into Mens Breafts and Bofoms, and rerum, fed their obliging us with a Sight of those fecret caufaque Springs, which put them upon moft of their nofcantur. Adventures and Enterprizes? By thus recurTac Ann ring to the Fountain, we learn the true GeXIV.

omnes.

Orat.

Tatio etiam

nius of the Party that acts, we know the Spirit, and the Affections that guide him in acting; we difcern what he is capable of, and by founding his Intentions, we find Truth at the Bottom. And yet, how many Falfities have overfpread the Field of Hiftory, under this fair Pretence? Into how many grofs Mistakes have thofe Hiftorians fallen, and ftill do fall, who are carried away with Injuftice, Infincerity or

Interesti

Interest, or fuch as giving themselves up to vain Conjecture, impofe their own Speculations and visionary Schemes upon the Publick, as the Reasons of Actions? As for Inftance, that Pericles rais'd the War in Peloponnefus, for the Love of the Courtefan Afpafia: That Xerxes march'd his prodigious Army into Greece, only to treat the Soldiers with Figs; that Marc Antony loft the Empire for no other Reason, but becaufe he would not lofe his Mistress Cleopatra: That Francis carried his Troops into Italy, for the fake of the fair Milanefe Clarice. These are a very dangerous Sort of Authors, that pretend to an Art of Divination about Men's Thoughts; who fay all they know, and all they do not know, for fear of not hitting upon the Truth. This is a great Default in Davila, whofe Reafonings are otherwise very juft and natural: But his Conjectures on the Motives of Fact, are very wide and erroneous, if we believe the Reports of our old Courtiers, who had the Opportunity of learning the Secrets from their Fathers. It must be ftill acknowledg'd, that_an_Action well laid open, and ftript to its Causes, and a deep Counsel rightly founded and fathomed, give us a noble Idea of the Capacity of an Author, make him fpeak like a Man of

true Reach, of exact Intelligence and Infor- Haud famation, and compofe one of the brightest Or- cilè aninaments of Story. But then, whofoever at- mus verum tempts this conjectural Part, muft fet the provider, ubi officiftrongest Guard upon his Prejudices of all unt odium, Kinds: He must be alike deaf to Love and amicitia, Hatred, that he may avoid that Artifice, and ira, atque thofe Colours that we are wont to put upon dia. mifericor Things, to make them fuit with our own Incli- Caf.apud nations, and favour the Side which we have Saluft.

expous'd:

Plut. in

efpous'd: He must advance no falfe Hypothefis to fupport his Conjectures, and to bring Things to the Turn that he pleases to give them: He must neither diminish nor magnify, he must not strew Weeds and Poy fons over every Page like Tacitus, nor Flowers and Sweets like Pa terculus; For the last of these Authors is as grand a Flatterer, as the other is a Critick and Cenfor: He must not pervert and wreft Men's Intentions to a worse Senfe, as Herodotus does, Herod, when he reports that the People of Sparta in 'vited the Perfians into Greece, as being unable either to refift, or to endure the Greatness of the Athenians. (For which he is cenfur'd by Plu tarch.) Nor muft he on the other Hand, excufe ill Actions under the Colour of good In. tentions, as Diodorus obferves of Callias the Syracufian, who juftified all the Measures of his Patron and Benefactor Agathocles: The like Compliment Paulus Jovias has paid to Cofme de Medicis among the Moderns.

There is fcarce any Hiftorian, but has given himself a Loofe this Way; because there is fcarce any, that has had Refolution and Firmnefs enough, to bear up against his own Prepoffeffions. But tho' the Motives of Acting in great Perfons ought, according to regular Course, to be finer and nobler than the Actions that follow; (because the Effect of the Motives. depends upon themselves, whereas the Event of the Actions does not) yet, if we confider their ordinary Frame, we must not deny an Hiftorian the Liberty of mixing, in their Counfels and Deliberations, fomewhat of that Vanity and Weakness, to which they are alike fubject with other Men. For the Motives which determine the Generality of Mankind, are very often impertinent and ridiculous:

as

as might be evinced by infinite Examples, were it proper for me to enlarge on this Topick. He must have a perfect Knowledge of the Vanity, Malice, Ignorance, and Folly of Man's Heart, which are (as 'twere) its fettled Principles, 'ere he can be able to found its Intention: And he muft throughly apprehend its Weakness, which is the common Source of its Malice. He must know, that a Boldness of Enterprize, is a great Art in the Management of Affairs, which are often spoil'd by too cautious a Prudence and Circumfpection. Above all, he muft not be ignorant, that the Negligence of great Men in examining Things, and their Impatience in deciding them, are the Wheels upon which their main Conduc neceffarily turns. Thefe are the Perfons that an Hiftorian ought throughly to understand; because being the chief Actors upon the Stage of the World, Things run for the moft Part, according to their Humour or Frolick. Not that an Author who has had once the good Fortune to reafon juftly upon these Principles, will always be able to do fo. We have feen Hiftorians in the present Age lofe their Reputation, by the too great Itch they had of interpofing their own Conjectures in all Events, and rather laying out themselves, than difplaying their Subjects. As Herrera, for Inftance, who would make us believe that the Duke of Parma did not put out all his Strength against the Hollanders, that he might manage them by Art and Policy. Nothing is more repugnant to the Spirit of an Hiftorian, which ought to be strictly true and fincere, than thefe airy Notions; and all Reafonings that are founded upon bare Conjecture, are either impertinent, or at beft un certain.