The modest critick, or, Remarks upon the most eminent historians, antient and modern with useful cautions and instructions as well for writing as reading history : wherein the sense of the greatest men on this subject is faithfully abridged / by one of the Society of the Port-Royal.

XXVI. How the Genius of an Historian must be.

Nothing can be writ consider∣able in History, without a Geni∣us; that makes all in that Art, as well as in others; and it is only that way that Historians distin∣guish themselves from one an∣other. A small Genius will make but little of a great Subject; and he that has a great Genius, will make a small Subject appear great. * 1.1 To write History well therefore, a man must have an universal Genius, capable of great Idea's, to form to himself a great Model, and great Designs. Hi∣story is a thing of importance † 1.2, says Cicero, and the business of a Man above the Common Level. And when Lucian, who was one of the finest Wits of his Age, which produc'd so many great men, confesses, that his Genius was too weak for History, and to attain to that Perfection which it requires. He frights me, by cre∣ating

in me a just apprehension of the difficulty which attends it: For if that Author, which has written nothing but what is admirable, and gives Rules so full of good sense for the wri∣ting of History, acknowledges that he is not capable of sustaining the weight of so great a work, what will become of those that in one day set up for Historians, without any knowledge of what is Essential in History, as he says it happen'd in that War in Ar∣menia, which produc'd so many Authors, through an Itch of writing, which at that time was a common Disease? But the Times are chang'd, says he; no∣thing is more difficult than for a man to compile a Work which all future Ages may esteem, as Thucydides has done. For what strength of Spirit is requisite to speak the Truth, without ma∣king Paraphrases, as those do, who have not Souls great enough to be clear and candid, and to speak things as they are? What

firmness to unmask Vice, natu∣rally disguis'd with Dissimulati∣on? What Sagacity to discover the bottom of the Genius of them we speak of, without stick∣ing to the exterior part of the Person, which seldom signifies a∣ny thing? But when the business is to distinguish People and Times by what is essential in their Cha∣racters, how necessary is a clear and distinguishing head? As for Example, in relating the Civil Wars of Rome, not to confound the Spirit of the Commonwealth with that of Monarchy; the abso∣luteness of the one with the De∣pendency of the other; not to write the Reign of Lewis the Fourteenth, which is no way ad∣dicted to Superstition, like that of Lewis the Eleventh, whose Character was Superstition it self; not to represent Charles the Great, like Henry the Third, but to mark the Times and the Per∣sons by the difference there is between them. What integrity, exactly to do Justice to Vice and

Virtue, to distinguish the true from the pretended Merit, and to use ones self to weigh the A∣ctions, without any regard to the Persons? What Judgment, to take always the right side, to turn things to the right sense, to chuse always what is most so∣lid; to interpose your Judgement upon the matter in agitation, without forcing the Reader, by any prejudices, to touch tender Points with that niceness of Wit which can only be the Effect of an exquisite sense; not to load your Discourse with too much Matter, which might chance to spoil the Spirit of it, without gi∣ving way to any Reflection what∣soever, made either by you, or any other Reader; to know how to find the true knot in every business, without mistaking your self in its explanation; not to deliver great Actions upon frivo∣lous Motives; not to hide false Thoughts under a florid Expres∣sion; to avoid any thing which seems studied and forc'd, and to

follow in all things that beam of light and understanding which gives an Idea of the discerning Faculty of the Historian, by gi∣ving a good Opinion of his Ca∣pacities. So that the most neces∣sary part in History is Judgment. An Orator may forget himself in the flights of his Eloquence, and venture bold stroaks, which may pass upon a multitude of People, who are pleas'd with nothing more than boldness. A Poet may ramble from his Text, and has no great necessity to be always wise. The Historian, who speaks only in cold Blood, ought al∣ways to be Master of himself, and to say nothing but what is just nothing, in fine, requires so much Sense, so much Reason, so much Wit and Judgment, and so many other Qualities, to at∣tain to perfection, as History; and after all is done, an happy Un∣derstanding, endued with all those Perfections, is not sufficient, with∣out a great knowledge of the World. It was only the Con∣versation

Polybius had with Sci∣pio and Lelius, that made him so able an Historian. We have in Thucydides and Livy accomplish'd Patterns of that Genius requir'd in History. Antiquity has nothing more finish'd in that kind. There is hardly any thing wanting in the one, or in the other, but that Thucydides is yet more sin∣cere than Livy, and the last more natural than the first. Tacitus is admirable in his way; Lipsius prefers him before all others: Every body is not of his Opini∣on. One may say in general, That he is an Historian of a par∣ticular Rank, who has a great deal of agreeableness amongst great failings; but his defects are somewhat hidden under a great∣ness of Genius which shines in all he says, and under a loftiness not well to be describ'd, which raise him above many Authors more exact, and more natural than himself. He has his Party and his Admirers. It is true, that he pleases men of Fancy and Ima∣gination,

but not those that have most Judgment, nor those that love good Sense rather than Flou∣rishes. Among Moderns, I find Mariana, Davila, Fra Paolo, have an admirable Genius for History. Mariana has the gift of thinking, and of saying nobly what he thinks and speaks, and of giving a Character of greatness to what runs in his Mind. Davila brings good Circumstances of things, discourses justly enough upon the Subjects he treats of, and carries on his Discourse in a continued Strain, which gives him that obliging Air which he has a∣bove others. Fra Paolo, in his History of the Council of Trent, gives what Colours he pleases to what he says: No body ever had that Art in a more eminent degree. He shews also a great Capacity, in searching to the bottom the Matters of Learning which he has in hand, to give his Readers a perfect know∣ledge thereof: No body ever writ with more Skill, nor with

more Wit, and never with less Justice and Truth. He is a pas∣sionate man, who employ'd all his Art in hiding his Passion: He made a jest in every thing, that he might not be thought to be angry; but he falls into another Defect: He raileth too much, in a Subject so serious as his is; for his Passion is seen in every thing he speaks. So that Historian, with his great Genius, has the most Vicious Character that can be in the way of writing History, where nothing is less pardonable than Enmity. An Historian is no longer believ'd, when once he is thought too passionate; which gives occasion of examining the Honesty which is necessary for him that pretends to write.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Arduum vi∣deturres gestas scribere, quod facta dictis ex∣aequanda sunt, Salust. proem. Bell. Catil.
• † 1.2

  Magnum quid Histori∣am recte scri∣bere, & summis Oratoris pro∣prium, Cic. l. 2. de Orat.