Of the art both of writing & judging of history with reflections upon ancient as well as modern historians, shewing through what defects there are so few good, and that it is impossible there should be many so much as tolerable / by the Jesuit Father Le-Moyne.

CHAP. II. Other Rules for Descriptions. Ovid censured: And of some Histo∣rians that have fail'd in these Rules.

BUT let him take care in this, he does not as the Rich Co∣vetous, who do profusely, and without measure, what is done but once a Year; 'tis not enough Descriptions are seldom, they must be short. The same Reasons of Confusion, Obstacle and Interrup∣tion, that forbid a Heap and Crowd∣ing, forbids also Length and Exten∣sion; chiefly when this Length runs upon things that make neither Substance nor Shadows; serve nei∣ther the Essence nor Accidents of Affairs.

And in this consists the third Rule, that forbids in any Description which is not to the purpose, works

not some great Effect, and is not worthy the Grandeur and Majesty of History. The Ancient Criticks despised Ovid, for that in a De∣scription of the Deluge, where the Towns and People had equally suffered Wrack, when Forrests, Mountains and Earth, were drown'd, he mentions Wolves that Swam with the Sheep without biting them. How would they then have decried Livy or Tacitus, obliged by the Dignity of History to a more composed Gra∣vity, if the like had escaped their Pens.

The less Severe Criticks of Italy would not pardon one of their Hi∣storians, who in a long and trou∣blesome Description of a Feast made at Rome for the King of Navar's Daughter, in her passage to Marry the Duke of Ferrara, leaving the Duty of an Historian, and taking upon him that of Maistre d'Hostel, obliges his Reader against his Will, to see the Account he gives of all the Services and Expence made at that Feast.

And shall we forgive an Histo∣rian, that having but a word to say, of the Magnificence with which the Late King was received at Paris in his return from Rochel; makes all the Wards march in Arms; counts the Ranks and Files of Companies; represents the Ha∣bits and Liveries of their Captains; their Colours and Feathers; and from thence enters by force the Town-hall, takes upon him to co∣ver the Tables, to range the Dishes and Plates; after this goes to the Greve, describes the Machines and all the Fire-works, distributes the Wine, and lets off the Fusees. This unuseful Diligence could hardly be indured in a Gazette-maker who writes for Shops and Ale-houses.

By the same reason in describing of Battles, after ranging the Troops of one side and the other, he must not amuse himself to represent the Horses, Arms, Devices and Ban∣ners; to tell all the Thrusts made

with Pikes and Swords, the Woun∣ded and Kill'd, as the Poets do by the Rules of their Profession; this were to confound the things ought to be distinguished, and mingle Poetry and History together. Ho∣mer is very large in describing the Buckler of Achilles; Virgil has outgone him in Wit, Judgment and Fame, by the Description of Aeneas his Arms, where is abridged all the Roman History: And to do yet more than Homer, he repre∣sents too the Symbols, the Chiefs of the Latin Army carried in their Bucklers and Helmets. Ariosto and Tasso, who followed their Method, have done the same; and my self, by their Example, in my St. Lovis, not only in the Tournament spoke of in the fourth Book, but in the Marching of Armies and Combats, to the end this Diversity of Pictures that are proper to Poetry, might enliven that matter, a Composure of the same Colour, and equal through∣out, had rendred disagreeable.

These Beauties are not permitted the Historian, who serves Muses either more Serious or more Severe; and we know no body that has not in some measure abstained from it, if it be not that worthy Person that Lucian tells employ'd a whole Book in describing the Bridles and Trap∣pings of Vologezes Horse, and ano∣ther longer to represent the Figures he saw in the Buckler of another General.