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. The Historick Narration requires Order. What is this Order; and how it differs from that of Poetry.

THE Historian ought not to pass from one Preface to another, as some have done, that were to build Portal upon Portal, Threshold upon Threshold, and two Heads upon one Body. He must enter his Relation, and follow it with an equal Composure, with∣out Interruption, and according to the Order of Events and Time. This Order is one thing in Hi∣story, another in Journals and Annals: In Journals the Method is to follow the Accidents of a Day: In Annals of a Year. History is not so much confin'd, though she is obliged to observe Time, and go hand in hand with it: She is not so tyed, that she cannot some∣times

free her self, and follow the Course and Events of Affairs.

This Method of sometimes fol∣lowing, and sometimes leaving Time, presupposes the Distinction of two Orders founded upon the Doctrine of Aristotle and Horace. Of these two Orders, says the Ma∣sters, the one is Natural, the other Artificial. By the first, things are conducted equally, and with the same course, from the beginning to the end: By the second, they go and stop by Intervals, as the Writer pleases, that one while shews, another hides; sometimes leads strait, then through by-ways, to raise the Curiosity of the Rea∣der, and keep up Desire and At∣tention. This second Order, is that ought to be kept in Fabulous Structures, as are Poems and Romances. Homer has given the first Example in Greek, Virgil the second in Latin, Tasso the third in Italian. And if it be permitted to name my self after these great Artists, I have

given the Fourth in French in my St. Lovis.

An Historian that is the Servant of Truth, and labours to establish her, has nothing to do with this Art of Disguising and Imposture; the natural Order is what she de∣mands: And because it may be taken from the Chain of things to∣gether, and their relation to time, the Historian is free to chuse which he thinks most open, least engaged, least subject to embarrass, and most proper to make entrance for his Matter in the Memory of the Reader.

There is yet some difference to be made between Vniversal Hi∣story of many States and Nations, without Relation, without Depen∣dance one upon the other; and particular but of one State, Na∣tion or Reign. In the Vniversal, the Order of Time must accom∣pany the Order of Places, and the Historian avoid following Ariosto, and other Architects of Irregular

Fables; that without Vessels, or Wings, and what is worse, Example; without Need or Subject, boldly cross the Seas, and pass in a Mo∣ment from one Pole to the other. And whilst you are most attentive to something Strange that is done in France or Spain, you are car∣ried from thence of a sudden into Asia or Africk. He must give himself leasure, as much as the time will permit, to finish what he has begun in one Country, be∣fore he goes into another. Hero∣dotus, Diodorus of Sicily, Justin, and others who have undertaken Vniversal Histories, have held this Method; and their Example, is a Rule for all those that would after them enter this vast Tract.

Particular History gives no such Fatigues, nor obliges to make such long Journies: She is shut up in one Country, from whence she is not permitted to stir, with∣out some Necessity draws her;

there she adjusts, as near as possi∣ble, the Course of things to that of time; but without tying her self to the Calender, without keeping Register of the Days or Years: When Events are so mea∣sured, and go so just, that the Years keep equal pace with them, she follows regularly this Exactness, that serves much to the Placing, Understanding and Measure of things; but when it happens they pass from one Year to the suc∣ceeding, the Composure of the Narration broken, and put off till another time, troubles the Mat∣ter, and makes Confusion in the Eyes of the Reader; then she conducts to the place where the Narration began, and lets time go on till she finds an Opportu∣nity to overtake and rejoyn him. Livy, Quintus Curtius and Tacitus have done after this manner; and in this they will be followed by all Lovers of good Order and

Oeconomy; and who would avoid the like Confusion Thucydides fell into, willing to adjust too scrupul∣ously the Periods of his History to those of the Sun.