530. As history is a species of writing designed for the instruction of mankind, sound morality should always reign in it. Both in describing characters, and in relating transactions, the author should always shew himself to be on the side of virtue.

Obs. 1. To deliver moral instruction in a formal manner, falls not within his province; but both as a good man, and as a good writer, we expect that he should evince sentiments of respect for virtue, and an indignation at flagrant vice.

2. To appear neutral and indifferent with respect to good and bad characters, and to affect a crafty and political, rather than a moral turn of thought, will, besides other bad effects, derogate greatly from the weight of historical composition, and will render the strain of it much more cold and uninteresting. We are always most interested in the transactions which are relating, when our sympathy is awakened by the story, when we become engaged in the fate of the actors. But this effect can never be produced by a writer who is deficient in sensibility and moral feeling.

531. MEMOIRS denote a sort of composition, in which an author does not pretend to give full information of all the facts respecting the period of which he writes, but only to relate what he himself had access to know, or what he was concerned in, or what illustrates the conduct of some person, or the circumstances of some transaction, which he chooses for his subject.

Obs. 1. From a writer of memoirs, therefore, is not expected the same profound research, or enlarged information, as from a writer of history. He is not subject to the same laws of unvarying dignity and gravity. He may talk freely of himself; he may descend into the most familiar anecdotes. What is chiefly required of him is, that he be sprightly and interesting; and, especially, that he inform us of things that are useful and curious; by conveying to us some sort of knowledge worth the acquiring.

2. This is a species of writing very enticing to such as love to write concerning themselves, and conceive every transaction in which they had a share, to be of singular importance. There is no wonder, therefore, that a nation so sprightly as the French should, for more than two centuries past, have been pouring forth a whole flood of memoirs; the greatest part of which are little better than agreeable trifles.

3. The memoirs of the Duke of Sully, in the state in which they are now given to the public, have great merit, and deserve to be mentioned with particular praise. No memoirs approach more nearly to the usefulness and the dignity of a full, authentic history. They have the peculiar advantage of giving us a beautiful display of two of the most illustrious characters which history presents; Sully himself, one of the ablest and most incorrupt ministers, and Henry IV., one of the greatest and most amiable princes of modern times. Dr. Blair says, that he knows few books more full of virtue and of good sense, than Sully's Memoirs; few, therefore, more proper to form both the heads and the hearts of such as are designed for public business, and action, in the world.

532. BIOGRAPHY, or the writing of lives, is a very useful kind of composition; less formal and stately than history; but to the bulk of readers, perhaps, no less instructive; as it affords them the opportunity of seeing the characters and tempers, the virtues and failings, of eminent men fully displayed; and admits them into a more thorough and intimate acquaintance with such persons, than history generally allows.

Obs. 1. For a writer of lives may descend, with propriety, into minute circumstances, and familiar incidents. It is expected that he should give the private, as well as the public life, of the person whose actions he records; nay, it is from private life, from familiar, domestic, and seemingly trivial occurrences, that we often receive most light into the real character.

2. In this species of writing, Plutarch has no small merit; and to him we stand indebted for much of the knowledge that we possess, concerning several of the most eminent personages of antiquity. His matter is, indeed, better than his manner; as he cannot lay claim to any peculiar beauty or elegance. His judgment too, and his accuracy, have sometimes been taxed; but whatever defects of this kind he may be liable to, his Lives of Eminent Men will always be considered as a valuable treasure of instruction.

3. He is remarkable for being one of the most humane of all the writers of antiquity; less dazzled than many of them are, with the exploits of valour and ambition; and fond of displaying his great men to us in the more gentle lights of retirement and private life.

533. A very great improvement has, of late years, been introduced into historical composition; namely, a more particular attention than was formerly given to laws, customs, commerce, religion, literature, and every other subject that tends to shew the spirit and genius of nations.

Obs. 1. It is now understood to be the business of an able historian, to exhibit manners, as well as facts and events; and, assuredly, whatever displays the state and life of mankind, in different periods, and illustrates the progress of the human mind, is more useful and interesting than the detail of sieges and battles.

2. The person to whom we are most indebted for the introduction of this improvement into history, is the celebrated M. Voltaire, whose genius has shone with surprising lustre, in many different parts of lit

erature.

CHAPTER VII.

OF PHILOSOPHICAL WRITING, DIALOGUE, AND EPISTOLARY

CORRESPONDENCE.

534. PHILOSOPHICAL writing. As the professed object of philosophy is to convey instruction, it is manifest that every philosophical writer ought to study the utmost perspicuity with respect both to single words, and the construction of sentences. Beyond mere perspiculty, strict accuracy and precision are required in a philosophical writer. He should employ no words of uncertain meaning, no loose nor indeterminate expressions; and should avoid using words which are seemingly synonymous, without carefully attending to the variation which they make upon the idea.

Illus. 1. To be clear and precise, then, are requisites which we have a title to demand from every philosophical writer. He may possess these qualities, and be at the same time a very dry writer. He should, therefore, study some degree of embellishment, in order to render his composition pleasing and graceful.

2. One of the most agreeable, and one of the most useful embellishments which a philosopher can employ, consists in illustrations taken from historical facts, and the characters of men. All moral and political subjects naturally afford scope for these; and wherever there is room for employing them, they seldom fail of producing a happy elfect. They diversify the composition; they relieve the mind from the fatigue of mere reasoning, and at the same time raise more full conviction than any reasonings produce: for they take philosophy out of the abstract, and give weight to speculation, by shewing its connection with real life, and the actions of mankind.

535. Philosophical writing admits, besides, of a polished, a neat, and an elegant style. It admits of metaphors, comparisons, and all the calm figures of speech, by which an author may convey his sense to the understanding with clearness and force, at the same time that he entertains the imagination.

Obs. He must take great care, however, that all his ornaments be of the chastest kind, never partaking of the florid or the tumid; which is so unpardonable in a professed philosopher, that it is much better for him to err on the side of naked simplicity, than on that of too much ornament.

Illus. In English, Locke's celebrated Treatise on Human Understanding, may be pointed out as a model, on the one hand, of the greatest clearness and distinctness of philosophical style, with very little approach to ornament; Lord Shaftesbury's writings, on the other hand, exhibit philosophy dressed up with all the ornament which it can ad

mit; perhaps with more than is perfectly suited to it. Stuart's philo sophical writings are composed with elegance and beauty.

536. DIALOGUE WRITING. Philosophical composition, when carried on in the way of dialogue and conversation, sometimes assumes a form, under which it mingles more with works of taste.

Obs. Under this form the ancients have given us some of their chief philosophical works; and several of the moderns have endeavoured to imitate them.

Illus. Dialogue writing may be executed in two ways, either as direct conversation, where none but the speakers appear, which is the method that Plato uses; or as the recital of a conversation, where the author himself appears, and gives an account of what passed in discourse; which is the method that Cicero generally follows. But though those different methods make some variation in the form, yet the nature of the composition is, in its elements, the same in both, and is therefore subject to the same laws.

537. A dialogue in one or other of these forms, on some philosophical, moral, or critical subject, when it is well conducted, stands in a high rank among the works of taste; but is much more difficult in the execution than is commonly imagined. For it requires more than merely the introduction of different persons speaking in succession.

Illus. 1. It ought to be a natural and spirited representation of real conversation; exhibiting the character and manners of the several speakers, and suiting to the character of each that peculiarity of thought and expression, which distinguishes him from another.

2. A dialogue, thus conducted, gives the reader a very agreeable entertainment; as by means of the debate going on among the personages, he receives a fair and full view of both sides of the argument; and is, at the same time, amused with polite conversation, and with a display of consistent and well-supported characters.

Corol. An author, therefore, who has genius for executing such a composition after this manner, has it in his power both to instruct and to please.

538. EPISTOLARY WRITING possesses a kind of middle place between the serious and amusing species of composition. Epistolary writing appears, at first view, to stretch into a very wide field. For there is no subject whatever, on which one may not convey his thoughts to the public, in the form of a letter.

Illus. For instance: Lord Shaftesbury, Mr. Harris, and several other writers, have chosen to give this form to philosophical treatises. But this is not sufficient to class such treatises under the head of epistolary composition. Though they bear, in the title-page, "a letter to a friend," after the first address, the friend disappears, and we see that it is, in truth, the public with whom the author corresponds. Seneca's Epistles are of this sort. There is no probability that they ever passed in correspondence as real letters. They are no other than miscellane

ous dissertations on moral subjects; which the author, for his convenience, chose to put into the epistolary form. Even where one writes a real letter on some formal topic, as of moral or religious consolation to a person under distress, such as Sir William Temple has written to the Countess of Essex on the death of her daughter, he is at liberty, on such an occasion, to write wholly as a divine or as a philosopher, and to assume the style and manner of either without reprehension. We consider the author not as writing a letter, but as composing a discourse, suited particularly to the circumstances of some one person. Russel's histories are in the form of letters.

539. Epistolary writing becomes a distinct species of composition, subject to the cognizance of criticism, only, or chiefly, when it is of the easy and familiar kind; when it is conversation carried on upon paper, between two friends at a dis

tance.

Illus. 1. Such an intercourse, when well conducted, may be rendesed very agreeable to readers of taste. If the subject of the letters be important, they will be the more valuable. Even though there should be nothing very considerable in the subject, yet if the spirit and turn of the correspondence be agreeable; if they be written in a sprightly manner, and with native grace and ease, they may still be entertaining; more especially if there be any thing to interest us, in the characters of those who write them.

2. Hence the curiosity which the public have always evinced, concerning the letters of eminent persons. We expect in them to discover something of their real character. It is childish indeed to expect, that in letters we are to find the whole heart of the author unveiled. Concealment and disguise take place, more or less, in all human intercourse.

3. But still, as letters from one friend to another make the nearest approach to conversation, we may expect to see more of a character displayed in these than in other productions, which are designed for public view. We are pleased with beholding the writer in a situation which allows him to be at his ease, and to give vent occasionally to the overflowings of his heart.

540. Much, therefore, of the merit, and the agreeableness of epistolary writing, will depend on its introducing us into some acquaintance with the writer. There, if any where, we look for the man, not for the author.

Illus. 1. Its first and fundamental requisite is, to be natural and simple; for a stiff and laboured manner is as bad in a letter, as it is in conversation. This does not banish sprightliness and wit. These are graceful in letters, just as they are in conversation; when they flow easily, and without being studied; when employed so as to season, not to cloy. One who, either in conversation or in letters, affects to shine and to sparkle always, will not please long.

2. The style of letters should not be too highly polished. It ought to be neat and correct, but no more. All nicety about words, betrays study; and hence musical periods, and appearances of number and harmony in arrangement, should be carefully avoided in letters.

3. The best letters are commonly such as the authors have written