H

EXTRACT

OF A

TREATISE FROM LUCIAN,

ENTITLED,

"HOW TO WRITE HISTORY."

TRANSLATED BY W. MUDFORD.

ISTORY differs greatly from poetry. The poet requires the aid of the gods. When he would draw Agamemnon, he muft have the head and eyes of Jupiter, the breaft of Neptune, and the buckler of Mars; but the hiftorian muft paint Philip one-eyed as he was.

Alexander threw into the Hydafpe the hiftory of Aristobulus, who had reprefented him as atchieving exploits which he never did, and added, he might rejoice that he did not throw him in alfo.

There are hiftorians who imagine they afford great pleasure to a prince, by depreciating the worth of his enemies. Achilles would have been lefs great had he not conquered a Hector.

Another fills his hiftory with trifling details, fuch as a foldier and an artifan walking through the camp together; another employs his time in giving tedious defcriptions of the drefs or the arms of a general, and when he comes to any great incident, he is entirely filent. Others think to attract the wonderful by things utterly void of truth, such as prodigious wounds and incredible deaths.

The one rifes, fometimes, to the most poetic phrafeology, and then all at once degenerates to the basest expreflions. It is like a man who has a bufkin laced on the one foot, and on the other a plain fandal.

Another minutely defcribes the moft trifling circumftances, and paffes flightly over thofe of actual import. Thefe are the principal faults into which an hiftorian is apt to fall; now the following are the great requifites which are required.

The two moft neceffary, are a juft eftimation of the things of the world, and an agreeable expreffion. The

first is a gift of heaven, the other is to be acquired by great labour and a thorough knowledge of the ancients.

It is neceffary that an hiftorian thould have feen an army of foldiers drawn up in array, that is, a wing, a van, battalions, inftruments of war, &c. &c. for without it he cannot reprefent it to the eyes of others.

Above all, he must be unbiaffed, fearing or hoping nothing. Superior to every kind of recompenfe, and fhewing refpect to no particular perfons, but an equit• able and impartial umpire, without country or mafier.

He fhould reprefent things as they are, without exaggeration or difguife, as he is not a poet but a narrator; and, confequently, refponfible for that which he relates. In a word, let him adhere to truth, and not only have in view the mutable praifes beftowed in this life, but regard that of pofterity. Let him imitate the Egyptian architect, who put on the plaister the name of the king who employed him, but beneath it his own, well knowing that the one would fall, whilft his name would remain eternally on the ftone.

"Oh

Alexander was heard to fay, more than once, that I could live more than three or four hundred years hence, that I might hear what men fay of me."

Let not his ftyle be flatulent and metaphorical, but rather easy and familiar; for though an adherence to veracity is requifite, yet a just delineation of things is more fo, therefore, let the general expreffion be clear and perfpicuous. For though an hiftorian fhould breathe the pure fpirit of liberty and truth, yet ought, alfo, his chief aim to be perfpicuity. In a word, that every one may understand, and the learned praise it, let not the diction be too far fetched or too common.

But yet it is neceffary that an hiftorian should have fome poetical ideas when he would defcribe a battle, armies preparing for the encounter, or veffels in actual engagements. It is then (to make ufe of the expreffion) that he is in want of a poetic gale to fwell the fails and irritate the fea; but let not his style be even then too inflated.

He

He must be cautious from whom he takes his memoirs, and confult only those whom he does not suspect of either partiality or hatred.

When he would make a collection of valuable memoirs, he must first reject the trifling ones, and then form an aggregation of the most inconteftible.

Like the Jupiter of Homer, an hiftorian fhould have his eyes on all fides, and fee equally that which paffes on either fide of the enemy.

He should be as a mirror pure and unfullied, which reprefents things as they are, and gives nothing of its own, but reflects ingenuoufly the object. He fhould not ftudy how he would fay it, but how it actually was said. His narrative fhould not want method, but should follow in regular fucceffion.

He fhould be aware not to expatiate too much in defcription. Witnefs Homer, who conveys in a little fuch beautiful ideas, and who was above all others in that refpect. But yer Thucydides was not too long in his defcription of the plague. Reflect on the importance of the fubject; he would fly it, but it flops him in spite of himself.

He fhould feel himself an orator in his harangues, according to thofe of whom he speaks.

He fhould be brief and circumfpect in his di&ions, but never be a calumniator. He fhould always, when poffible, act upon demonftration, and when not, from the moft inconteftible authority.

1 hefe are the principal requifites required in an

HISTORIAN.

THE DRAMA.

HAYMARKET THEATRE.

TUESDAY, A introduced to the notice and appro

New Comedy, entitled SIGHS, was

JULY 30.

bation of the public. It is taken from KOTZEBUE,

the

the German dramatist, who is now become the fashionable fource of most of our entertainments.

Such are the refpective characters of this new drama --we now proceed to the story on which it is founded.

Leopold indulges to excefs his grief for the lofs of a wife, withdraws from the world, and admits not to his fociety even his daughter Louisa. She, longing to be admitted to her father's prefence, contrives to be introduced as the housekeeper's daughter into the family of Von Snarl, Leopold's brother, with whom he refides. Here Adelbert, a young Polith emigrant, of refpectability, engages her affections, and at the fame time the receives the addreffes of Totum, Von Snarl's head clerk, whom the rejects. Circumftances of a peculiar nature involving Adelbert in fufpicion, the explanation ends in favour of Leopold, and an union with Louifa.

The fcene lies in Germany, in the houfe of Von Snarl, whofe daughter, Josephina, and Hans William, form an attachment to each other-and at the close of the piece the marriage is finally completed.

The chief merit of this play confifts in its delineating great fimplicity of manners. For this trait Kotzebue is diftinguished, and Mr. Hoare, the reputed editor, has not fuffered it to be loft in preparing it for the English ftage. The characters of Leopold, Adelbert, and Louifa, difplay conjugal affection and filial piety. Totum, the clerk, is a highly comic genius, continually ringing changes on the technicals of the compting-houfe, which

circumstance

circumstance relieves the graver parts of the comedy.The attempts at wit, indeed, do not always fucceed, but they cannot, in general, be denied the praise of neatnefs. This humorous character resembles, in fome measure, the famous Dr. Panglofs; for which fimilarity we are most probably indebted to the English editor, who thus thought of rendering it the more acceptable to the British public.

Mrs. Bland fang an enchanting air, which was loudly encored. The dreffes are new and handsome. Sighs conftitute the burden of the Prologue, and this is almost the only part of the play in which we difcern the propriety of the application.

We were gratified by feveral fpirited allufions to the unhappy fate of Poland, trampled to the ground by the hoof of tyranny; and alfo to the Slave Trade, which still continues to prefs with an intolerable load poor humanity. The approbation with which these paffages were received by the audience, affords a pleafing proof that the milk of human kindness has not yet ceafed to flow in the veins of Britons !

AUG. 5. A Farce, entitled GANDER HALL, was brought forward this evening, for the benefit of Mrs. Gibbs, and was, on the whole, well received.

Sir Gregory and Lady Gander, a queer old couple, endeavour to beftow the hand of their daughter Caroline, on Lord Froth, to the injury of her real lover Raymond. The intention is confounded by the management of Buffle, a chattering hair-dreffer, whofe devices prove the means of producing a great variety of laughable fituations. The first act is preferable to the fecond-though both are capable of improvements. Sir Gregory, Lady Gander, Lord Froth, and Bustle, convey by their names the very kind of characters they fuftain. There is much humour in the piece, and it contributed in a confiderable meafure to our entertainment. In the failing of any fcheme which tends to difappoint virtuous love, we rejoice, and on this account we were pleafed in many refpects with the varieties of this theatrical effufion.