This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. Searching, reading, printing, or downloading EEBO-TCP texts is reserved for the authorized users of these project partner institutions. Permission must be granted for subsequent distribution, in print or electronically, of this text, in whole or in part. Please contact project staff at eebotcp-info@umich.edu for further information or permissions.
There may also be other Or∣naments fit to be put in History, to make it more pleasant, ei∣ther when it is dull, and when it is too plain, by over-long Nar∣rations, which are too much like one another: but, of those Or∣naments,
the most apparent are not always the most essential: All is not Gold that glitters. A Mind that is bridled up does not take delight in too much finery; and that ought to en∣gage a Learned Man to manage those Ornaments without Pro∣digality, and accommodate him∣self to mens Capacity, which too great a brightness dazles; besides that those Ornaments crowded one upon another, sur∣prise more than they please. There are hidden ones, which give greater satisfaction to curious people; and thô they escape o∣thers notice, they do not escape theirs; you may every moment discover new Charms which up∣hold them, and which are la∣sting, more than those which give but a glaunce, and die. Those kind of Ornaments con∣sist sometimes of eloquent or wit∣ty turns, which in a mann••r are surprising, and cast an un∣look'd for Effect on the places they are put in; whereof here
are some Examples: Porsenna, King of Clusium, besieges Rome: C. Mutius, mov'd with the dan∣ger he sees his Countrey in by so close a Siege, goes into Por∣senna's Camp, kills his Secretary close by him, thinking to have kill'd him: The Murtherer is seis'd; they order a Pan of fire to be brought, to force him to declare his Associates by the Tor∣ment of the fire. That Young Man, full of Courage, in cold Blood, puts his hand in the fire, and without any alteration in his Countenance, let it be quite burnt upon the hot Embers; speaking in this manner to the King: z See how those that are possest with true Glory, despise their own Carcass. That spoken with a firm Countenance, alters the face of things; the Murtherer, thô abominable and odious, casts an admiration on the Spirits of them that were present; they look up∣on him with Respect, and they send him home with Praises, in the same moment that they were
〈1 page duplicate〉〈1 page duplicate〉
〈1 page duplicate〉〈1 page duplicate〉
preparing to make him end his Life in cruel Tortures. A reso∣lute word only makes that change; and such a word well placd, is a great Ornament in a Narration, and has a marvel∣lous Effect. So upon Fabius's re∣taking Tarentum, Hannibal, thô vanquish'd, spoke this fine Say∣ing, which look'd as thô he had still been victorious, praising him∣self, to raise his Enemy the more: The Romans, said he, have also at last their Hannibal. That was a proud way of sub∣mitting himself. Those sayings are frequent in that Historian. No∣thing also gives more the Idea of those who speak so, when they speak well, nor of him that makes them speak, as when he does it on purpose. Here is one of another kind, taken out of Tacitus, in that famous Feast Massalina made to her Lover: In the heat of the rejoicing, and of the Debauchery of that Feast, they got an Idiot, whose Name was Valens, to climb up to the
top of a Tree; and they asked him what he saw: A Tempest, said he, which gathers in the Air, and comes from Ostium. That word, spoken by a Fool, cast a coldness and sorrow upon the People's Spirits, which disturb'd all things, thô spoken without design; for it was a Prognostication of the Emperour's return, which happen'd a few days after, and caus'd the Empress to be stabb'd, tir'd with her infamous Life. Those mar∣vellous sayings are very accepta∣ble in History, being fit to rouze up the Reader's Mind by some∣thing which is sharp. There are Thousands of others which an Historian employs to embellish his Work, and which have escap'd my Memory: and I do not pre∣tend to say all that is good in this kind. It is enough to mark those which can give another face to Affairs; to search other Con∣jectures, to give way to other I∣dea's, and to other Sentiments: In a word, all those fine sayings, capable of causing some kind of
revolution in the Reader's Mind, to give him Action, and Motion too, being always truly fine, are never out of use. The business is to place them so, that they may appear incorporated in a Narration, to play all their part in it; that is to say, to make the matter pleasant, when, of it self, it is barren and disagree∣able.
Sentias quam vile cor∣pus sit iis, quā magnam glori∣am vident. Tit. Liv. l. 2. Annal.
Et Romani suum habent Annibalem, l. 27. Annal.