exchange and the coffee-house.
the convivial table and the domestic h
vulgar expressions. He must not sh
the retreats of misery. He who wishe
dition of mankind in former ages, mu
principle. If he attends only to publi
congresses, and debates, his studies will
the travels of those imperial, royal, and s
form their judgment of our island from ha
a few fine sights, and from having held fol
a few great officers.
The perfect historian is he in whose work
spirit of an age are exhibited in miniature.
he attributes no expression to his characters
thenticated by sufficient testimony. But by ju
rejection, and arrangement, he gives to truth
which have been usurped by fiction. In his
subordination is observed; some transactions
others retire. But the scale on which he repre
increased or diminished, not according to the
persons concerned in them, but according to the de
they elucidate the condition of society and the na
He shows us the court, the camp, and the sena
shows us also the nation. He considers no anecdot
liarity of manner, no familiar saying, as too insignific
notice, which is not too insignificant to illustrate the
of laws, of religion, and of education, and to mark the
of the human mind. Men will not merely be described,
be made intimately known to us. The changes of mann