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useful, his morals must not be totally unlike those
of his contemporaries. If the Iliad should, in a long
course of ages, have inflamed the ambition and fe-
rocity of a few individuals, even that evil, great as
it is, will be far from balancing all the generous
sentiments, which, for three thousand years, it has
been pouring into the hearts of youth; and which
it now continues to infuse, aided by the dignity of
antiquity, and by all the fire and splendour of poetry.
Every succeeding generation, as it refines, requires
the standard to be proportionably raised.

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man of thirty-eight, the son of a shopkeeper, who
never filled an office, or had the power of obliging
a living creature, and whose grand title to this dis-
tinction was the belief of his virtue. How honour.
able to the age and to the House! A country where
such sentiments prevail is not ripe for destruction."
Sir James could not but feel, in the narrow
circles of Bombay, the great superiority of
London society; and he has thus recorded
his sense of it :-

"Apply these remarks, with the necessary modi.
fications, to those fictions copied from common life In great capitals, men of different provinces,
called Novels, which are not above a century old, professions, and pursuits are brought together in so
and of which the multiplication and the importance, ciety, and are obliged to acquire a habit, a matter,
as well literary as moral, are characteristic features and manner mutually perspicuous and agreeable.
of England. There may be persons now alive who Hence they are raised above frivolity, and are di-
recollect the publication of Tom Jones,' at least, vested of pedantry. In small societies this habit is
if not of Clarissa. Since that time, probably not imposed by necessity; they have lower, but
twelve novels have appeared of the first rank-a more urgent subjects, which are interesting to all,
prodigious number, of such a kind, in any depart-level to all capacities, and require no effort or prepa-
ment of literature (by the help of Sir Walter Scott ration of mind."
and Miss Edgeworth we may now at least double
the number) and the whole class of novels must

have had more influence on the public, than all
other sorts of books combined. Nothing popular
can be frivolous. Whatever influences multitudes.
must be of proportionable importance. Bacon and
Turgot would have contempled with inquisitive
admiration this literary revolution."

And soon after, while admitting that Tom
Jones (for example) is so far from being a
moral book as to be deserving of the severest
reprobation, he adds-

"Yet even in this extreme case, I must observe
that the same book inspires the greatest abhorrence of
the duplicity of Blifil, of the hypocrisy of Thwackum
and Square; that Jones himself is interesting by
his frankness, spirit, kindness, and fidelity-all vir-
tues of the first class. The objection is the same
in its principle with that to the Iliad. The ancient
epic exclusively presents war-the modern novel
love; the one what was most interesting in public
life, and the other what is most brilliant in private
and both with an unfortunate disregard of moral

restraint."

The entry under 6th March, 1817, has to
the writer of this article, a melancholy inter-
est, even at this distance of time. It refers
to the motion recently made in the House of
Commons for a new writ, on the death of Mr.
Horner. The reflections with which it closes
must, we think, be interesting always.

"March 6th.-The only event which now ap-
pears interesting to me, is the scene in the House
of Commons on Monday. Lord Morpeth opened
it in a speech so perfect, that it might have been
well placed as a passage in the most elegant Eng-
lish writer; it was full of feeling; every topic was
skilfully presented, and contained, by a sort of pru-
dence which is a part of taste, within safe limits;
he slid over the thinnest ice without cracking it.
Canning filled well what would have been the va-
cant place of a calm observer of Horner's public
life and talents. Manners Sutton's most affecting
speech was a tribute of affection from a private friend
become a political enemy; Lord Lascelles, at the
head of the country gentleman of England, closing
this affecting, improving, and most memorable
scene by declaring, that if the sense of the House
could have been taken on this occasion, it would
have been unanimous.' I may say without exagge-
ration, that never were so many words uttered with
out the least suspicion of exaggeration; and that
never was so much honour paid in any age or nation
to intrinsic claims alone. A Howard introduced,
and an English House of Commons adopted, the
proposition, of thus honouring the memory of a

He might have added, that in a great capi-
tal the best of all sorts is to be met with; and
that the adherents even of the most extreme
or fantastic opinions are there so numerous,
and generally so respectably headed, as to
command a deference and regard that would
scarcely be shown to them when appearing
as insulated individuals; and thus it happens
that real toleration, and true modesty, as well
as their polite simulars, are rarely to be met
with out of great cities. This, however, is
true only of those who mix largely in the
general society of such places. For bigots
and exclusives of all sorts, they are hot-beds
and seats of corruption; since, however ab-
surd or revolting their tenets may be, such
persons are sure to meet enough of their fel-
lows to encourage each other. In the provin
ces, a believer in animal magnetism or Ger-
man metaphysics has few listeners, and no
encouragement; but in a place like London
they make a little coterie; who herd together,
exchange flatteries, and take themselves for
the apostles of a new gospel.

The editor has incorporated with his work
some letters addressed to him by friends of
his father, containing either anecdotes of his
earlier life, or observations on his character
and merits. It was natural for a person whose
age precluded him from speaking on his own
authority of any but recent transactions, to
seek for this assistance; and the information
contributed by Lord Abinger and Mr. Basil
Montagu (the former especially) is very inter-
esting. The other letters present us with little
more than the opinion of the writers as to his
character. If these should be thought too
laudatory, there is another character which
has lately fallen under our eye, which cer-
tainly is not liable to that objection. In the
"Table-Talk" of the late Mr. Coleridge, we
find these words:-"I doubt if Mackintosh
ever heartily appreciated an eminently origi

nal man.

After all his fluency and brilliant
erudition, you can rarely carry off any thing
worth preserving. You might not improperly
write upon his forehead, 'Warehouse to let!" "

We wish to speak tenderly of a man of ge-
nius, and we believe of amiable dispositions,
who has been so recently removed from his
friends and admirers. But so portentous a

we shall only say, that nothing could possibly
set the work before us in so favourable i
point of view, as a comparison between it
and the volumes of "Table Talk," to which
we have already made reference- unless,
perhaps, it were the contrast of the two minds
which are respectively portrayed in these
publications.

misjudgment as this, and coming from such a
quarter, cannot be passed without notice. If
Sir James Mackintosh had any talent more
conspicuous and indisputable than another, it
was that of appreciating the merits of eminent
and original men. His great learning and
singular soundness of judgment enabled him
to do this truly; while his kindness of na-
ture, his zeal for human happiness, and his In these memorials of Sir James Mackin-
perfect freedom from prejudice or vanity, tosh, we trace throughout the workings of a
prompted him, above most other men, to do powerful and unclouded intellect, nourished
it heartily. And then, as to his being a person by wholesome learning, raised and instructed
from whose conversation little could be car- by fearless though reverent questionings of
ried away, why the most characteristic and the sages of other times (which is the per
remarkable thing about it, was that the whole mitted Necromancy of the wise), exercised
of it might be carried away-it was so lucid, by free discussion with the most distinguished
precise, and brilliantly perspicuous! The joke among the living, and made acquainted with
of the "warehouse to let " is not, we confess, its own strength and weakness, not only by
quite level to our capacities. It can scarcely a constant intercourse with other powerful
mean (though that is the most obvious sense) minds, but by mixing, with energy and de-
that the head was empty-as that is incon-liberation, in practical business and affairs;
sistent with the rest even of this splenetic and here pouring itself out in a delightful
delineation. If it was intended to insinuate miscellany of elegant criticism, original spe-
that it was ready for the indiscriminate re-culation, and profound practical suggestions
ception of any thing which any one might on politics, religion, history, and all the greater
choose to put into it, there could not be a more and the lesser duties, the arts and the ele-
gross misconception; as we have no doubt gances of life-all expressed with a beautiful
Mr. Coleridge must often have sufficiently clearness and tempered dignity-breathing
experienced. And by whom is this dis- the purest spirit of good-will to mankind—
covery, that Mackintosh's conversation pre- and brightened not merely by an ardent hope,
sented nothing that could be carried away, but an assured faith in their constant advance.
thus confidently announced? Why, by the ment in freedom, intelligence, and virtue.
very individual against whose own oracular
and interminable talk the same complaint has
been made, by friends and by foes, and with
an unanimity unprecedented, for the last forty
years. The admiring, or rather idolizing ne-
phew, who has lately put forth this hopeful
specimen of his relics, has recorded in the
preface, that "his conversation at all times
required attention; and that the demand on
the intellect of the hearer was often very
great; and that, when he got into his 'huge
circuit' and large illustrations, most people
had lost him, and naturally enough supposed
that he had lost himself." Nay, speaking to
this very point, of the ease or difficulty of
"carrying away" any definite notions from
what he said, the partial kinsman is pleased
to inform us, that, with all his familiarity with Consulting little at any time with any thing
the inspired style of his relative, he himself but his own prejudices and fancies, he seems,
has often gone away, after listening to him in his latter days, to have withdrawn alto-
for several delightful hours, with divers masses gether from the correction of equal minds;
of reasoning in his head, but without being and to have nourished the assurance of his
able to perceive what connection they had own infallibility, by delivering mystical ora-
with each other. "In such cases," he adds, cles from his cloudy shrine, all day long, to a
"I have mused, sometimes even for days after-small set of disciples, to whom neither ques-
wards, upon the words, till at length, spon-
taneously as it were, the fire would kindle,"
&c. &c. And this is the person who is pleased
to denounce Sir James Mackintosh as an ordi-
rary man; and especially to object to his con-
versation, that, though brilliant and fluent,
there was rarely any thing in it which could
be carried away!

An attack so unjust and so arrogant leads
naturally to comparisons, which it could be
easy to follow out to the signal discomfiture
of the party attacking. But without going
beyond what is thus forced upon our notice,

On all these points, the "Table Talk ” of
his poetical contemporary appears to us to
present a most mortifying contrast; and to
render back merely the image of a moody
mind, incapable of mastering its own imagin-
ings, and constantly seduced by them, or by
a misdirected ambition, to attempt impracti
cable things:-naturally attracted by dim
paradoxes rather than lucid truths, and pre-
ferring, for the most part, the obscure and ne-
glected parts of learning to those that are
useful and clear-marching, in short, at all
times, under the exclusive guidance of the
Pillar of Smoke-and, like the body of its
original followers, wandering all his days in
the desert, without ever coming in sight of
the promised land.

tion nor interruption was allowed. The result
of this necessarily was, an excaerbation of all
the morbid tendencies of the mind; a daily
increasing ignorance of the course of opinions
and affairs in the world, and a proportional
confidence in his own dogmas and dreams,
which might have been shaken, at least, if
not entirely subverted, by a closer contact
with the general mass of intelligence. Un-
fortunately this unhealthful training (pecu-
liarly unhealthful for such a constitution) pro-
duced not merely a great eruption of ridicu
lous blunders and pitiable prejudices, but

seems at last to have brought on a confirmed purpose than to give effect to the enlightened
and thoroughly diseased habit of uncharitable- and deliberate will of the community. To
ness, and misanthropic anticipations of cor- enforce these doctrines his whole life was
ruption and misery throughout the civilised devoted; and though not permitted to com-
world. The indiscreet revelations of the work plete either of the great works he had pro-
to which we have alluded have now brought jected, he was enabled to finish detached
to light instances, not only of intemperate portions of each, sufficient not only fully to
abuse of men of the highest intellect and develope his principles, but to give a clear
most unquestioned purity, but such predic- view of the whole design, and to put it in the
tions of evil from what the rest of the world power of any succeeding artist to proceed
has been contented to receive as improve- with the execution. Look now upon the other
ments, and such suggestions of intolerant and side of the parallel.
Tyrannical Remedies, as no man would be-
lieve could proceed from a cultivated intel-
lect of the present age-if the early history
of this particular intellect had not indicated
an inherent aptitude for all extreme opinions,
-and prepared us for the usual conversion of
one extreme into another.

Mr. Coleridge, too, was an early and most
ardent admirer of the French Revolution; but
the fruits of that admiration in him were, not
a reasoned and statesmanlike apology for
some of its faults and excesses, but a resolu-
tion to advance the regeneration of mankind
at a still quicker rate, by setting before their
And it is worth while to mark here also, eyes the pattern of a yet more exquisite form
and in respect merely of consistency and of society! And accordingly, when a full-
ultimate authority with mankind, the advan-grown man, he actually gave into, if he did
tage which a sober and well-regulated under- not originate, the scheme of what he and his
standing will always have over one which friends called a Pantisocracy-a form of so-
claims to be above ordinances; and trusting ciety in which there was to be neither law
either to an erroneous opinion of its own nor government, neither priest, judge, nor
strength, or even to a true sense of it, gives magistrate-in which all property was to be
itself up to its first strong impression, and sets in common, and every man left to act upon
at defiance all other reason and authority. his own sense of duty and affection!
Sir James Mackintosh had, in his youth, as This fact is enough:-And whether he af-
much ambition and as much consciousness of terwards passed through the stages of a Jaco-
power as Mr. Coleridge could have: But the bin, which he seems to deny-or a hotheaded
utmost extent of his early aberrations (in his Moravian, which he seems to admit,-is really
Vindicia Gallica) was an over estimate of the of no consequence. The character of his un-
probabilities of good from a revolution of derstanding is settled with all reasonable men:
violence; and a much greater under-estimate As well as the authority that is due to the
of the mischiefs with which such experiments anti-reform and anti-toleration maxims which
are sure to be attended, and the value of set- he seems to have spent his latter years in
tled institutions and long familiar forms. Yet, venting. Till we saw this posthumous publi-
though in his philanthropic enthusiasm he did cation, we had, to be sure, no conception of
miscalculate the relative value of these op- the extent to which these compensating max-
posite forces (and speedily admitted and rec-ims were carried; and we now think that few
tified the error), he never for an instant dis- of the Conservatives (who were not originally
puted the existence of both elements in the Pantisocratists) will venture to adopt them.
equation, or affected to throw a doubt upon Not only is the Reform Bill denounced as the
any of the great principles on which civil so- spawn of mere wickedness, injustice, and
ciety reposes. On the contrary, in his earliest ignorance; and the reformed House of Com-
as well as his latest writings, he pointed mons as "low, vulgar, meddling, and sneering
steadily to the great institutions of Property at every thing noble and refined," but the
and Marriage, and to the necessary authority wise and the good, we are assured, will, in
of Law and Religion, as essential to the being every country, "speedily become disgusted
of a state, and the well-being of any human with the Representative form of government,
society. It followed, therefore, that when brutalized as it is by the predominance of de-
disappointed in his too sanguine expectations mocracy, in England, France, and Belgium !"
from the French Revolution, he had nothing And then the remedy is, that they will recur
to retract in the substance and scope of his to a new, though, we confess, not very com-
opinions; and merely tempering their an- prehensible form, of "Pure Monarchy, in
nouncement, with the gravity and caution of which the reason of the people shall become
maturer years, he gave them out again in his efficient in the apparent Will of the King!"
later day's to the world, with the accumulated Moreover, he is for a total dissolution of the
authority of a whole life of consistency and union with Ireland, and its erection into a sepa-
study. At no period of that life, did he fail rate and independent kingdom. He is against
to assert the right of the people to political Negro emancipation-sees no use in reducing
and religious freedom; and to the protection taxation - and designates Malthus' demon-
of just and equal laws, enacted by representa-tration of a mere matter of fact by a redundant
tives truly chosen by themselves: And he
never uttered a syllable that could be con-
strued into an approval, or even an acquies-
cence in persecution and intolerance; or in
tae maintenance of authority for any other

accumulation of evidence, by the polite and
appropriate appellation of "a lie;" and repre-
sents it as more disgraceful and abominable
than any thing that the weakness and wick-
edness of man have ever before given birth to.

We fear we have already transgressed our
just limits. But before concluding, we wish
to say a word on a notion which we and pretty
generally entertained, that Sir James Mackin-
tosh did not sufficiently tum to profit the
talent which was committed to him; and did
much less than, with his gifts and opportuni-
ties, he ought to have done. He himself
seems, no doubt, to have been occasionally
of that opinion; and yet we cannot but think
it in a great degree erroneous. If he had not,
in early life, conceived the ambitious design
of executing two great works,—one on the
principles of Morals and Legislation, and one
on English History; or had not let it be under-
stood, for many years before his death, that
he was actually employed on the latter, we
do not imagine that, with all the knowledge
his friends had (and all the world now has)
of his qualifications, any one would have
thought of visiting his memory with such a
reproach.

Such as his temperance and candour are in secution. We are sure we treat Mr. Coleridge
politics, they are also in religion; and recom-with all possible respect when we say, that
mended and excused by the same flagrant his name can lend no more plausibility to ab-
contradiction to his early tenets. Whether he surdities like these, than the far greater names
ever was a proper Moravian or not we care of Bacon or Hobbes could do to the belief in
not to inquire. It is admitted, and even stated sympathetic medicines, or in churchyard ap-
somewhat boastingly in this book, that he was paritions.
a bold Dissenter from the church. He thanks
heaven, indeed, that he "had gone much
farther than the Unitarians!" And to make
his boldness still more engaging, he had gone
these lengths, not only against the authority
of our Doctors, but against the clear and ad-
mitted doctrine and teaching of the Apostles
themselves "What care I,' I said, for the
Platonisms of John, or the Rabbinisms of Paul?
My cons ience revolts?—That was the ground
of my Unitarianism." And by and by, this
infallible and oracular person does not hesitate
to declare, that others, indeed, may do as they
choose, but he, for his part, can never allow
that Unitarians are Christians! and, giving no
credit for "revolting consciences" to any one
but himself, charges all Dissenters in the
lump with hating the Church much more
than they love religion-is furious against the
repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, and
Catholic Emancipation, and at last actually,
and in good set terms, denies that any Dis-
senter has a right to toleration! and, in per-
fect consistency, maintains that it is the duty
of the magistrate to stop heresy and schism
by persecution if he only has reason to think
that in this way the evil may be arrested;
adding, by way of example, that he would be
ready "to ship off-any where," any mission-
aries who might attempt to disturb the un-
doubting Lutheranism of certain exemplary
Norwegians, whom he takes under his special
protection.

We know of no code of morality which
makes it imperative on every man of extra-
ordinary talent or learning to write a large
book:-and could readily point to instances
where such persons have gone with unques-
tioned honour to their graves, without leaving
any such memorial-and been judged to have
acted up to the last article of their duty,
merely by enlightening society by their lives
and conversation, and discharging with ability
and integrity the offices of magistracy or legis
We are tempted to say more. But we de-lation, to which they may have been called.
sist; and shall pursue this parallel no farther.
Perhaps we have already been betrayed into
feelings and expressions that may be objected
to. We should be sorry if this could be done
justly. But we do not question Mr. Cole-
ridge's sincerity. We admit, too, that he was
a man of much poetical sensibility, and had
visions of intellectual sublimity, and glimpses
of comprehensive truths, which he could
neither reduce into order nor combine into
system. But out of poetry and metaphysics,
we think he was nothing; and eminently dis-
qualified, not only by the defects, but by the
best parts of his genius, as well as by his
temper and habits, for forming any sound
judgment on the business and affairs of our
actual world. And yet it is for his preposter-
ous judgments on such subjects that his memory
is now held in affected reverence by those
who laughed at him, all through his life, for
what gave him his only true claim to admira-
tion! and who now magnify his genius, for no
other purpose but to give them an opportunity
to quote, as of grave authority, his mere deli-
rations, on reform, dissent, and toleration-his
cheering predictions of the approaching mil-
lennium of pure monarchy-or his demonstra-
tions of the absolute harmlessness of taxation,
and the sacred duty of all sorts of efficient per-

But looking even to the sort of debt which
may be thought to have been contracted by
the announcement of these works, we cannot
but think that the public has received a very
respectable dividend—and, being at the best
but a gratuitous creditor-ought not now to
withhold a thankful discharge and acquittance.
The discourse on Ethical Philosophy is fuli
payment, we conceive, of one moiety of the
first engagement, and we are persuaded will
be so received by all who can judge of its
value; and though the other moiety, which
relates to Legislation, has not yet been ten-
dered in form, there is reason to believe that
there are assets in the hands of the executors,
from which this also may soon be liquidated.
That great subject was certainly fully treated
of in the Lectures of 1799-and as it appears
from some citations in these Memoirs, that,
though for the most part delivered extempore,
various notes and manuscripts relating to them
have been preserved, we think it not unlikely
that, with due diligence, the outline at least
and main features of that interesting disquisi-
tion may still be recovered. On the bill for
History, too, it cannot be denied that a large
payment has been made to account-and as
it was only due for the period of the Revolu
tion, any shortcoming that may appear upon

But, in truth, there never was any such
debt or engagement on the part of Sir James:
And the public was, and continues, the only
debtor on the transaction, for whatever it may
have received of service or instruction at his
hand. We have expressed elsewhere our
estimate of the greatness of this debt; and of
the value especially of the Histories he has
left behind him. We have, to be sure, since
seen some sneering remarks on the dulness
and uselessness of these works; and an at-
tempt made to hold them up to ridicule, under
the appellation of Philosophical histories. We
are not aware that such a name was ever ap-
plied to them by their author or their admirers.
But if they really deserve it, we are at a loss
to conceive how it should be taken for a name
of reproach; and it will scarcely be pretended
that their execution is such as to justify its
application in the way of derision. We do
not perceive, indeed, that this is pretended;
and, strange as it may appear, the objection
seems really to be, rather to the kind of wri-
ting in general, than to the defects of its exe-
cution in this particular instance the objector
having a singular notion that history should
consist of narrative only; and that nothing
can be so tiresome and useless as any addition
of explanation or remark.

that score, may be fairly held as compensated in the history of the world for the last two
by the voluntary advances of value to a much hundred years? above all, what useful lesson
greater extent, though referring to an earlier could be learned, for people or for rulers, from
period.
a mere series of events presented in detail,
without any other information as to their
causes or consequences, than might be in
ferred from the sequence in which they ap
peared? To us it appears that a mere record
of the different places of the stars, and their
successive changes of position, would be as
good a system of Astronomy, as such a set of
annals would be of History; and that it would
be about as reasonable to sneer at Newton
and La Place for seeking to supersede the
honest old star-gazers, by their philosophical
histories of the heavens, as to speak in the
same tone, of what Voltaire and Montesquieu
and Mackintosh have attempted to do for our
lower world. We have named these three,
as having attended more peculiarly, and more
impartially, than any others, at least in modern
times, to this highest part of their duty. But
in truth, all eminent historians have attended
to it-from the time of Thucydides down-
wards;--the ancients putting the necessary
explanations more frequently into the shape
of imaginary orations and the moderns into
that of remark and dissertation. The very
first, perhaps, of Hume's many excellences
consists in these philosophical summaries of
the reasons and considerations by which he
supposes parties to have been actuated in
great political movements; which are more
completely abstracted from the mere story,
and very frequently less careful and complete,
than the parallel explanations of Sir James
Mackintosh. For, with all his unrivalled sa
gacity, it is true, as Sir James has himself
somewhere remarked, that Hume was too
little of an antiquary to be always able to
estimate the effect of motives in distant ages;
and by referring too confidently to the princi
ples of human nature as developed in our own
times, has often represented our ancestors as
more reasonable, and much more argumenta-
tive, than they really were.

We have no longer room to expose, as it
deserves, the strange misconceptions of the
objects and uses of history, which we humbly
conceive to be implied in such an opinion;
and shall therefore content ourselves with
asking, whether any man really imagines that
the modern history of any considerable State,
with its complicated system of foreign rela-
tions, and the play of its domestic parties,
could be written in the manner of Herodotus?
or be made intelligible (much less instruct-
ive) by the naked recital of transactions and
occurrences? These, in fact, are but the crude
materials from which history should be con-
structed; the mere alphabet out of which its
lessons are afterwards to be spelled. If every
reader had indeed the talents of an accom-
plished Historian,-that knowledge of human
nature, that large acquaintance with all col-
lateral facts, and that force of understanding
which are implied in such a name and, at
the same time, that leisure and love for the
subject which would be necessary for this
particular application of such gifts, the mere
detail of facts, if full and impartial, might be
sufficient for his purposes. But to every other
class of readers, we will venture to say, that
one half of such a history would be an in-
soluble enigma; and the other half the source
of the most gross misconceptions.

Without some explanation of the views and
motives of the prime agents in great transac-
tions of the origin and state of opposite inte-
rests and opinions in large bodies of the people
and of their tendencies respectively to as-
cendency or decline-what intelligible account
could be given of any thing worth knowing

That there may be, and have often been,
abuses of this best part of history, is a reason
only for valuing more highly what is exempt
from such abuses; and those who feel most
veneration and gratitude for the lights afforded
by a truly philosophical historian, will be sure
to look with most aversion on a counterfeit.
No one, we suppose, will stand up for the in
troduction of ignorant conjecture, shallow dog
matism, mawkish morality, or factious injustice
into the pages of history-or deny that the
shortest and simplest annals are greatly prefer
able to such a perversion. As to political
partiality, however, it is a great mistake to
suppose that it could be in any degree ex-
cluded by confining history to a mere chroni
cle of facts-the truth being, that it is chiefly
in the statement of facts that this partiality
displays itself; and that it is more frequently
exposed to detection than assisted, by the ar
guments and explanations, which are supposed
to be its best resources. We shall not resume
what we have said in another place as to the
merit of the Histories which are now in ques

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