felection. And you may very reasonably be allowed to rely moft on what you have feen yourself. But where the teftimony of your own eyes is not to be had, you are judiciously to collect the evidence of those who appear to be the leaft partial, the leaft likely to add to or diminish from the fact, from favour or diflike. A writer for this purpose must have a fufficient quicknefs of difcernment, and be of abilities to make choice of what is most probable. When he has thus carefully collected all or the greatest part of his materials, let him draw out a sketch of the whole work, which, though yet imperfectly connected and unadorned, will be found a very useful note-book to begin with. To this, order and beauty and colouring are afterwards to be given; nor is any advantage to be omitted, which may refult from an intimate acquaintance with the fubject, from bestowing on it the dress that is moft becoming, and making all the parts in harmony with each other. Our impartial hiftorian is to refemble Homer's Jupiter, who looks down one while upon Thrace famous for horfe-flesh, and then cafts an eye on † closefighting Myfia. He is to take a distant survey of the Romans, just as they would appear to a fpectator in the air above, and to relate their actions accordingly. Next he may turn, his eyes to the Perfians; or, if they are engaged in battle, on both at at once. While the difpofition is making for the fight, he is not to confine his attention to this or that particular, to this horfeman, or that footman; unless indeed fome † Brafidas fhould leap forward, or a ↑ Demofthenes defend the pafs. His first and principal regard must be had to the general officers: whatever orders they give he must know, and in what manner, and with what defign, and for what end each difpofition is made. When the two armies engage, he is to be an impartial fpectator, weighing every thing on each fide in equal fcales, pursuing with the purfuers, and flying with those that fly. Let him ne ver on any occafion forget when he is to leave off; nor, like an unexperienced boy, furfeit us with adventitious impertinence, but let him learn to acquit himself with propriety and ease.'The hiftorian's mind fhould refemble a mirrour, clean, clear, and || exact; that it may exhibit things in their proper

Hom. II. xiii. 4.

Our author has omitted this epithet from Homer, which feems to be forgetting his own inftructions, to give every one his due. Thucydides. iv.

• Nangibe. To nevigov, exact in the centre. It is not very easy to find out what is meant by this expreffion. Many conjectures have therefore been hazarded with refpect to the form, fashion, and exiftence of fpeculums amongst the ancients. Of their existence there is as little doubt, as that the moderns have afcribed to their own invention many things which are not properly fo. Any polifhed body impervious to the rays of light is a mirror. A calm fea, if we may believe the poets, affords a very convenient toilet for an overgrown beau.

forms,

forms, and fhew them fuch as they really are, without any per verfion or variation, either in colour or figure. His business is very different from that of the crator: he is in poffeffion of his facts, and what he is inftructed to fay must be faid at all events, and in due order. The question is how and not what he is to fay. The compofer of hiftory is never to lofe fight of its neceffary refemblance to the performances of a Phidias, or Praxiteles, or Alcamenes. Thole celebrated artists did not make the gold, or the filver, or the ivory, or any other materials they used; which were at all times ready prepared to their hands by the Elæans, or Athenians, or Argives. But their business was to fashion, to cut, to polish, to glue, to give the elegance and proportion. The hiftorian's bufinefs is in like manner to make a finished difplay of his facts in the clearest and moft becoming manner he is able.'—

-I could with you to be particularly on your guard against luxuriancy in your defcriptions of mountains, walls, and rivers; nor fuffer yourself to be tempted with a vain defire of fhewing us what fine things you can fay, neglecting your history to fet off yourfelf. When you have faid just as much as ufe and perfpicuity require, and not a fyllable more, learn then to pass on, avoiding the liquorish fnares of flourish and affectation. Obferve how Homer conducts himself in this refpe&t... All poet as he is, how lightly nevertheless does he pafs over Tantalus,” Ixion, Tityus, &c. whereas, had the mention of Tantalus fallen in the way of Parthenius, or Euphorion, or Callimachus, how many lines do you think it would have, coft to get the water up to his lips? and how many verfes do you fuppofe he would have employed in whirling Ixion's wheel? Obferve how sparing Thucydides is in the ufe of this ftyle, and how well he knows when to leave off, after defcribing a warlike machine, or a fiege, the form of Epipola, or the port of Syracufe; not adding one unneceffary word. If you think him tedious in recounting the ravages of the peftilence, do but attend to the variety and multiplicity of his matter, and you will acknowlege, that the flying pen of the hiftorian is impeded by the numerous incidents crowding upon him. If you fhould have occafion to introduce a profeffed fpeech-maker, you will then have a fit opportunity of playing the rhetorician, and fhewing the full power of your eloquence; but at the fame time care must be taken, that your orator appear ftrictly in character, speak with propriety and to the purpose. Let your manner of diftributing praife and blame be always moderate, guarded, impartial and manly, accompanied with fuitable proofs, diftributed briefly and feafonably. Otherwife no attention will be

Callimachus, fome of whose works are now extant, had such an averfion to long and tedious works, that to him is attributed that old and true faying, a great book is a great evil. He could not therefore be the Callimachus here cenfured.

paid to what you fay, and you will be in the fame predicament with Theopompus, who has fuch a violent inclination to find fault, that he had rather fuffer his hiftory to ftand ftill, than lose any opportunity of indulging his fpleen. If a wandering story chance to crofs your way, you are to mention it not as à matter which you take upon you to be anfwerable for; but leave it to the reader to be determined, as he thinks beft. Thus, by not leaning to either fide, you are fure of being safe. Above all things remember the advice which I have fo repeatedly given, not to confine your views to the praifes and honours of the prefent age, but to take a far nobler and wider fcope. Rejecting every temporary confideration boldly challenge futurity, write to ages unborn, and from them expect thy meed. Then fhall it be faid of thee: This was a man unreferved, open, and ingenuous, who neither feared nor flattered any one, ftudious only of telling the plain truth." Ought not fuch a character as this in times to come far to outweigh all the little hopes of this fhort life? You have heard what is told of the architect of + Cnidus. After he had conftructed the tower of Pharos, that moft beautiful and capital work, that mariners at a distance, feeing the lighthoufe, might at the fame time be fenfible of their own danger, and void the fatal rocks of § Parætonia ;having finished this amazing work, he cut his name in the folid ftone, over which he then put a coat of plafter, and inscribed on the furface the name of the then reigning king; well knowing (as it actually came to pass) that in a little time the letters would moulder away with the furface on which they were written, leaving for all men to read on the lafting rock, "Softratus the Cnidian, fon of Dexiphanes, to the gods preferving voyagers by fea." You fee he paid no manner of regard to the time then prefent, nor once thought of the fhort period of his own life; but ventured to look forwards to our days, and to every future age, as long as the monument of his art fhould remain. In like manner whoever undertakes the province of history is fteadily to adhere to the truth, which, though it afford but a future and diftant hope, is much preferable to the fond flattery, which he might think immediately to obtain by a contrary conduct. Let this therefore be thy rule, this the only guide, on which thou mayeft depend. Whoever closes with thefe directions cannot fail to compaís his end. And whoever neglects them will unavoidably fall into the errors which he has been cau

*Theopompus et Timæus duo maledicentiffimi. Cornelius Nepos, in Alcibiade. To fay every thing of every body with the utmost freedom, was the manner of Theopompus. Cicero ad Attic. ii. 6.

A city of Caria, in Afia Minor.

A fmall ifland at the mouth of the Nile, in which was a tower with lights to direct vessels in the night.

§ Parætonia, or Parætonium, a large city of Egypt.

tioned to avoid, and I fhall have laboured to as little purpose as Diogenes rolling his tub.'

Though it is extremely difficult, if not impoffible, to cons vey an adequate idea of the wit of Lucian, in any tranf lation, yet this writer feems to have preferved it in a very confiderable degree; in language, that is neither formal on the one hand, nor vulgar on the other.

To this volume he has fubjoined a lift of Lucian's works, in the order, in which they are printed in the Amfterdam edition of 1743, amounting to near 200 tracts, dialogues, and epigrams. But it is to be obferved, that many of the pieces, which are here enumerated, and commonly printed with the works of Lucian, are, by the best judges, supposed to be written by other hands.

Dialogues of the Dead with the Living. 8vo. 41. in boards. Conant.

HORACE, in his Art of Poetry, has laid it down as a rule

in dramatic writing, that an author fhould never introduce a deity on trifling occafions :

Let not a god approach the fcene,

In cafes for a god too mean.

This maxim may be applied, with equal propriety, to the introduction of ghosts on the great theatre of the world. Our ancestors were weak enough to believe, that they came for the most infignificant purposes; to tell an idle tale, to dif cover a pot full of money, to clink a chain, to stalk through an empty apartment, or to frighten women and children. People of the prefent age are not fo credulous; they juftly explode the reality of apparitions; and therefore we only hear of their coming in metaphor, by poetical incantation, to hold a dialogue with the living on fome moral, political, or theo logical topic. But in this ideal converfation the author, who introduces them, fhould always remember, that they should communicate fome important inftructions, and support their characters with propriety and dignity.

Let not a ghoft approach the scene,

In cafes for a ghost too mean.

The author of this work has brought together lord Herbert and Mr. Hume, Shakspeare and Mr. Garrick (Hume and Garrick being alive, when thefe Dialogues were written); Henry Fielding, efq. and Courtney Melmoth; bishop Sherlock

and Soame Jenyns, efq. Mr. Cowley and Dr. Hurd; Mr. Addifon and Dr. Johnson; archbishop Langton and Edward Gibbon, efq. Cicely duchefs of York and lady S. And we must do him the juffice to obferve, that the caufes for which they are introduced are not unworthy of their concern, and their conversations not unbecoming their characters.

Lord Herbert lived in the reign of James the Firft. He published a deiftical performance, entitled De Veritate the first of the kind, which formed Deism into a regular fyftem. But he is fuppofed to be now convinced of his error, and to appear to Mr. Hume, with a defire to remove his prejudices respecting Christianity. Mr. Hume, having declared it to be utterly impoffible, that a miracle should ever happen, endea vours to fupport his affertion by experience; alleging, that what contradicts experience cannot be true. Lord Herbert replies, that we are witneffes of ten thoufand miracles every day; that the rifing of the fun, the life and motion of animal bodies, and, in a word, the moft ordinary appearances in nature are miraculous.

your

I entreat you then, fays Mr. Hume, to favour me with definition of a miracle.

L. Herb.] Moft readily; and perhaps my compliance with your requeft may fet the matter in a clearer point of view than a longer train of reafoning. My definition is fhort, but fufficient; "a miracle is an action beyond human power to cause, or to explain."

Mr. Hume.] Surely you omit an effential; you should add, " and is a violation of the laws of nature."

L. Herb.] There can be no occafion for fuch an addition, unless it be to caft an obfcurity over the face of truth; for those very laws of nature are in themselves as fully miraculous as any violation of them ever can be. You declare in your Effay, "that nothing is esteemed miraculous if it ever happen in the common courfe of nature." Efteemed! will you, Mr. Hume, give that as a reason why it is not fo? Does opinion alter the nature of things? A miracle that happens every day, every hour, nay every minute, is no lefs a miracle than that which may happen but once in a thousand years. I will produce your own inftance, "That lead fhould remain fufpended in the air is certainly miraculous ;" and fo it is that lead fhould fall to the ground. You hear me with a look of astonishment; but diveft yourself of prejudice, and confider, Why does a heavy body fall to the ground? You are too much of a philofopher to tell me, it does because it does; which in effect you would fay, if you attributed it to the force of gravity or attraction; fpecious terms! which proud reafon has invented to hide its ignorance: no, the thing itself is an evident miracle; as much a miracle as if the body were to re