CHAPTER IX.

Characters of historians, who were concerned in the transactions which they record.

Of the modern writers of ancient history, the young reader will find that Rollin* has, in one respect, the decided superiority; we mean, in his practice of intermixing useful reflections on events and characters. But we should strongly recommend the perusal of such portions of the original ancient historians, as a judicious preceptor would select. And, in reading historians or politicians, ancient or modern, the most likely way to escape theories and fables, is to study those writers who were themselves actors in the scenes which they record.

Among the principal of these is THUCYDIDES, whose opportunities of obtaining information, whose diligence in collecting it, and whose judgment and fidelity in recording it, have obtained for him the general suffrage of the best judges; who had a considerable share in many of the events which he records, having been an unfortunate, though meritorious, commander in the Peloponnesian war, of which he is the incomparable historian ;-whose chronological accuracy is derived from his early custom of preparing materials as the events arose; and whose genius confers as much honour, as his

[Charles

The writer forbears to name living authors. Rollin was born in 1661, and died in 1741. He was rector of the Royal College of Paris, which flourished greatly under his government. His Ancient History, in 13 vols., and Roman History, in 9 vols., are highly esteemed. The latter was coinpleted by Crevier.-ED.]

unmerited exile reflects disgrace, on his native Athens. In popular governments, and in none perhaps so much as in those of Greece, the ill effects of mismanagement at home have been too frequently charged on those who have had the conduct of armies abroad; and where a sacrifice must be made, that of the absent is always the most easy. The integrity and patriotism of Thucydides, however, were proof against the ingratitude of the republic. His work was as impartial as if Athens had been just; like Clarendon, he devoted the period of his banishment to the composition of an history, which was the glory of the country that banished him. A model of candour, he wrote not for a party or a people, but for the world; not for the applause of his age, but the instruction of posterity. And though his energy, spirit, and variety must interest all readers of taste, statesmen will best know his value, and politicians will look up to him as a master.-XENOPHON, the Attic bee, equally admirable in whatever point of view he is considered; a consummate general, historian, and philosopher; who carried on the historic series of the Greek revolutions from the period at which Thucydides discontinued it; like him, was driven into banishment from that country, of which he was so bright an ornament

And with his exiled hours enrich'd the world!

The conductor and narrator of a retreat, more honourable and more celebrated than the victories of other leaders; a writer, who is considered by the first Roman critic, as the most exquisite model of simplicity and elegance; and who, in almost all the transactions which he relates, magna pars fuit. -POLYBIUS, trained to be a statesman in the Achæan league, and a warrior at the conquest of Carthage; the friend of Scipio, and the follower of

Fabius; and, who is said to be more experimentally acquainted with the wars and politics of which he treats, than any other Greek. He is, however,

more authentic than entertaining; and the votaries of certain modern historians, who are satisfied with an epigram instead of a fact, who like turns of wit better than sound political reflections, and prefer an antithesis to truth, will not justly appreciate the merit of Polybius, whose love of authenticity induced him to make several voyages to the places of which his subjects led him to speak.-CÆSAR, of whom it would be difficult to say, whether he planned his battles with more skill, fought them with more valour, or described them with more ability; or whether his sword or pen executed his purposes with more celerity and effect; but, who will be less interesting to the general reader, than to the statesman and soldier. His Commentaries, indeed, will be perused with less advantage by the hereditary successor of the sovereign of a settled constitution, than by those who are struggling with the evils of civil commotion.-JOINVILLE,* whose life of his great master, Saint Louis, is written with the spirit of the ancient nobles, and the vivid earnestness of one who saw with interest what he describes with fidelity; having been companion to the king in the expeditions which he records.-PHILIPPE DE COMINES,† who possessed, by his personal concern in public affairs, all the avenues to the political and historical knowledge of his

*Jean Sire de Joinville attended Louis the IX. in all his expeditions, of which he left a faithful history, published first by Du Cange, in 1668; and again, from a more perfect manuscript, in 1761. The author died at the age of ninety, in 1318.-ED.

Philip de Comines died, at the age of sixty-four, in 1509. His memoirs of the history of Louis XI. and Charles VIII. have obtained for the author the title of the Tacitus of France.-ED.

time, and whose memoirs will be admired while acute penetration, sound sense, and solid judgment survive.-DAVILA,* who learned the art of war under that great master, Henry the Fourth of France, and whose history of the civil wars of that country furnishes a variety of valuable matter; who possesses the happy talent of giving interest to details, which would be dry in other hands; who brings before the eyes of the reader, every place which he describes, and every scene in which he was engaged; while his intimate knowledge of business, and of human nature, enables him to unveil with address the mysteries of negociations and the subtleties of statesmen. This excellent work is disgraced by the most disgusting panegyrics on the execrable Catherine di Medici; an offence against truth and virtue, too glaring to be atoned for by any sense of personal obligation. In consequence of this partiality, he speaks of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew as slightly as if it had been a merely common act of necessary rigour on a few criminals; an execution being the cool term by which he describes that tremendous deed.+-GUICCIARDIN, a diplomatic historian, a lawyer, and a patriot; whose tedious orations and florid style cannot destroy the merit of his great work, the value of which

Henri Catherine Davila was born at Padua, in Italy, in 1576, and was assassinated at Venice, while in the service of that republic, in 1631. It was here he wrote, in Italian, his History of the Civil Wars of France, the best edition of which is that of London, 3 vols. 4to. 1755.-ED.

Who can help regretting that the lustre of one of the most elegant works of antiquity, Quintilian's Institution of an Orator, should be in a similar manner tarnished by the most preposterous panegyrics on the emperor Domitian?

Francis Guicciardin was born at Florence in 1482, and died in 1540. He wrote the history of his own times from 1494 to 1532.-ED.

*

is enhanced by the piety and probity of his own mind.-SULLY, the intrepid warrior, the able financier, the uncorrupt minister, who generally regulated the deep designs of the consummate statesman by the inflexible rules of religion and justice; whose memoirs should be read by ministers, to instruct them how to serve kings; and by kings, to teach them how to choose ministers.— CARDINAL DE RETZ,† who delineates with accuracy and spirit the principal actors in the wars of the Fronde, in which he himself had been a chief agent; who develops the dissimulation of courts with a skilfulness of an adept in the arts which he unfolds, yet affecting, while he portrays the artifices of others, a simplicity the very reverse of his real character; while his levity in writing retains so much of the licentiousness, and want of moral and religious principles, of his former life, that he cannot be safely recommended to those whose principles of judgment and conduct are not fixed. Yet his characters of the two famous cardinal prime ministers may be read with advantage by those whose business leads them to such studies. The reader of De Retz will find frequent occasion to recognize the homage which even impiety and vice pay to religion and virtue, while the abundant corruptions of popery will call forth from every considerate protestant devout sensations of gratitude to Heaven for

Maximilian de Bethune, duc de Sully, was born in 1569, and died in 1651. He was the favourite minister of Henry IV. king of France and Navarre, whose history he has written with great fidelity and elegance.-ED.

Jean Francois Paul de Gondy, cardinal de Retz, was born in 1614. Though an ecclesiastic, he fought several duels, and, while leading a debauched life, sought and obtained the highest dignities in the church. When an archbishop, he raised a regiment, which was called his Breviary. Being banished the court, he travelled over a great part of Europe, and the observations made in his exile render his memoirs very interesting. He died at Paris in 1677.-ED.