P. P. ERRATA 6. 1. 14. for cæli read Cæli. 8. 1. 14. for quidam read quidem. 1. 24. for in adfueto read in-adfueto P. 18. 1. 21. for lives read loves. P. 23. 1. 21. for free read fresh. P. 34. 1. 27. for known read had. P. 111. 1. 25. for and is about read and about. P. 115. 1. 18. for its read his." P. 181. 1. 11. for vinea read vineas. P. 191. 1. 22. for upon read up in. P. 249. 1. laft. for ftrange digreffion read ftrange fyftem of digreffion Pafte this at the back of the Advertisement, to face page 1. RE V IE W OF MR. GIBBON'S HISTORY, &c. Gibbon's Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in Volumes IVth, Vth, and VIth, Quarto. CHAPTER FIRST. N the first rude state of historical compofition, IN it is a mere intimation of the greater facts. It notes the battles of contending nations; but it goes no farther. It points out no political causes, that led to this decifion by the fword. It indicates no political confequences, that refulted from the victory or the defeat. And it even gives no other circumstances of facts, than to tell which of the parties won the day. This is the very skeleton of history; appearing at present in the Saxon Chronicle among ourselves, and once appearing probably in those first chroniclers of Rome, Fabius Pictor and others, who have fince funk away in the meagerness of their own wretched annals, and in the plenitude of the fucceeding histories. B The The next grand ftage of improvement, is to dwell upon all the principal events of history; to draw out the train of caufes preceding; and to link together the chain of confequences following. It particularly loves to reft upon those splendid incidents of history, battles. It defcribes them with a fulness and a circumftantiality, that faften upon the mind, and give it a kind of fanguinary fatisfaction. Such was the work of Cœlius among the Romans, we fuppofe; a writer, to whom Livy occafionally refers, and one of the later chroniclers, from whom he compiled his hiftory. And fuch is Baker's Chronicle among ourselves; that standing mirror of history to our fathers, and now remembered with fondnefs by us as the delight of our childhood. This is the fkeleton clothed with mufcles, fupported by finews, and exhibiting the form and figure of history to the eye. But this fpecies of writing, by a regular gradation of improvement, afterwards affumes a higher port. It takes the incidents of the first stage, and the circumftances of the fecond. It combines caufes, facts, and confequences, in one regular order of fucceffion. It throws an illumination over the whole, by the clearness of its narration, the judicioufnefs of its arrangement, and the elegance of its language. And it gives the reader an intereft in the scenes before him, by the liveliness with which it prefents them to his mind, and by the reflections with which it points them to his heart. Such is the hiftory of Livy among the Romans, and such are some of our best histories written by by the last generation. This is the skeleton not merely clothed with flesh, but actuated with nerves, animated with blood, and bearing the bloom of health upon its cheek. Here had hiftorical compofition rested, it would have answered all the ufeful, and all the elegant, purposes of life. But the activity of the human mind, is always on the wing. The spirit of improvement is ever pushing forward. And there is a degree of improvement beyond this, which may fhed a greater warmth of colouring over the piece, give it a deeper intereft with the affections of the furveyor, and fo reach the full point of hiftorical perfection. But alas! man can easily imagine, what he can never execute. The fancy can see a perfection, and the judgment can recommend it; but the hand cannot attain to it. Whether this be the cafe with the prefent idea of historical perfection, I know not; but it is certain, I think, that it has never been attained hitherto. Hiftory, indeed, having once advanced to the third ftage of improvement, cannot but ftrain to reach the fourth and last. Then it lays itself out in a splendour of imagery, a frequency of reflections, and a refinement of language; and thus makes the narrative more ftriking, by its additional vivacity and vigour. But it is melancholy to obferve, that in proportion as we thus advance in the ornamental parts of historical writing, we are receding from the folid and the neceffary; we lofe in veracity what we gain in embeltifhments; and the authenticity of the narration fades and finks away, in the luftre of the philosophy furrounding B 2 rounding it. The mind of the writer, bent upon the beautiful and fublime in hiftory, does not condefcend to perform the task of accuracy, and to stoop to the drudgery of faithfulness. The mirror is finely polished and elegantly decorated; but it no longer reflects the real features of the times. The fun fhines out, indeed, with a ftriking effulgence; but it is an effulgence of glare, and not a radiation of usefulness. Such hiftorians as thefe, we may venture to pronounce, are Tacitus among the ancients, most of our best hiftorians in the prefent generation, and Mr. Gibbon at the head of them. And these present us with the skeleton of history, not merely clothed with mufcles, animated with life, and bearing the bloom of health upon its cheek; but, instead of carrying a higher flush of health upon its cheek, and fhewing a brighter beam of life in its eyes, rubbed with Spanish wool, painted with French fard, and exhibiting the fire of falfehood and wantonnefs in its eyes. That we should thus rank Tacitus, may surprise those who have lately been so much in the habit, of admiring and applauding him as the first of all human hiftorians; and who may fuppofe he stands, like the other hiftorians of the ancients, invested with oracular confequence for facts, and incapable of being convicted of unfaithfulness from any cotemporary records. That he has been lately rated beyond his merit, taken out of the real line in which he ought to ftand, and transferred from the rank of affected and fantastical hiftorians to that of the judicious and manly, has been long my per fuafion. |