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. What ought to be the Ornament of the Stile of History; and in what it consists.

THE Stile of History must be adorned; but every sort of Ornament is not proper for her. The Dress must be applied to Ages, Conditions and Employs. A Plume of Feathers in the Hat of a Captain, has another mien, than in the Cap of a President: And what would become a Girl, would be very ill placed upon her Mother. Though Youth be the Spring of Life, and by consequence the time of Dress, a Young Person must not be seen every day by all in the same Habit: 'Tis the same in the

Matter we are speaking of, History demands Ornament, but not that of a Ball or Theatre. It must be Ornament of Ceremony, and Holy∣days, Serious, Grave and Modest; and she would be as ill deck'd up in the Locutions and Figures of Apuleius, as if a Grave Lady should go to Church in the Habit of a Comedian.

This Ornament then (to say something particular) must not be that of a Country-Wedding, where the new-married Wife is covered all over with Tinsel; 'tis made principally of three things, Ele∣gance of Words, Just Disposition, and certain Light from Sentences and Figures, that shine and give Eclat to the Composure of the Stile. Words are Elegant, that are not of too old or too new a Fabrick; that are receiv'd by Men of Worth, and breath not the common Air. Disposition contributes to their Ele∣gancy, when they have Number and Measure, that make a Har∣mony

the Ignorant are not capable of. As to Sentences, having al∣ready discoursed of them, it will be enough to say here, they re∣quire Management, where there appears more Oeconomy than Want. But to shew them to the Reader by certain Marks placed in the Margent, as if afraid they should not be taken notice of, besides the Affectation and Pedantry, is to give Value to ill Wine by the Sign.