pomp of business than the true and inward resorts thereof. But Lives, if they be well Written, propounding to themselves a person to represent in whom actions both greater and smaller, public and private, have a commixture, must of neceffity contain a more true, native, and lively representation. So again Narrations and Relations of actions, as the War of Peloponnefus, the Expedition of Cyrus Minor, the Confpiracy of Catiline, cannot but be more purely and exactly true than Hiftories of Times, because they may choose an Argument comprehenfible within the notice and inftructions of the Writer: whereas he that undertaketh the Story of a Time, especially of any length, cannot but meet with many blanks and spaces which he must be forced to fill up out of his own wit and conjec

ture.

For the History of Times, I mean of Civil Hiftory, the providence of GOD hath made the dif tribution for it hath pleased God to ordain and illuftrate two exemplar States of the World for Arms, Learning, Moral Virtue, Policy, and Laws; the State of Gracia, and the State of Rome; the Hiftories whereof occupying the Middle part of time, have, more ancient to them, Histories which may by one common name be termed the Antiquities of the World: and after them, Histories which may be likewise called by the name of Modern Hiftory.

Now to speak of the deficiencies. As to the Heathen Antiquities of the World, it is in vain to

note them for deficient: deficient they are no doubt, confifting most of Fables and fragments; but the deficience cannot be holpen; for Antiquity is like Fame, Caput inter nubila condit, her head is muffled from our fight. For the History of the Exemplar States, it is extant in good perfection. Not but I could wifh there were a perfect Course of History for Græcia from Thefeus to Philopomen, (what time the Affairs of Græcia were drowned and extinguished in the affairs of Rome ;) and for Rome from Romulus to Juftinianus, who may be truly faid to be Ultimus Romanorum. In which sequences of Story the Text of Thucydides and Xenophon in the one, and the Texts of Livius, Polybius, Salluftius, Cæfar, Appianus, Tacitus, Herodianus in the other, to be kept entire without any diminution at all, and only to be supplied and continued. But this is Matter of Magnificence, rather to be commended than required: and we speak now of parts of Learning fupplemental and not of fupererogation.

But for Modern Hiftories, whereof there are some few very worthy, but the greater part beneath Mediocrity, (leaving the care of Foreign ftories to Foreign States, because I will not be Curiofus in aliena Republica,) I cannot fail to represent to your Majefty the unworthiness of the Hiftory of England in the Main continuance thereof, and the partiality and obliquity of that of Scotland in the latest and largest Author that I have seen supposing that it would be honour for your

Majefty, and a work very memorable, if this Island of Great Britain, as it is now joined in Monarchy for the ages to come, so were joined in one Hiftory for the times passed; after the manner of the facred History, which draweth down the Story of the Ten Tribes and of the Two Tribes, as Twins, together. And if it shall seem that the greatness of this Work may make it less exactly performed, there is an excellent period of a much smaller compass of time, as to the Story of England; that is to fay, from the Uniting of the Roses to the Uniting of the Kingdoms; a portion of time, wherein, to my understanding, there hath been the rarest varieties that in like number of fucceffions of any hereditary Monarchy hath been known for it beginneth with the mixed Adoption of a Crown by Arms and Title: an entry by Battle, an Establishment by Marriage, and therefore times answerable, like waters after a tempeft, full of working and fwelling, though without extremity of Storm; but well paffed through by the wisdom of the Pilot, being one of the most fufficient Kings of all the number. Then followeth the Reign of a King, whose actions, howsoever conducted, had much intermixture with the affairs of Europe, balancing and inclining them variably; in whose time alfo began that great alteration in the State Ecclefiaftical, an action which feldom cometh upon the Stage. Then the Reign of a Minor: then an offer of a ufurpation, though it was but as Febris Ephemera: Then the Reign of a Queen matched with a Fo

reigner: then of a Queen that lived folitary and unmarried, and yet her government so masculine, that it had greater impreffion and operation upon the States abroad than it any ways received from thence. And now last, this most happy and glorious event, that this Ifland of Britain, divided from all the World, fhould be United in itself: and that Oracle of Reft, given to Æneas, Antiquam exquirite Matrem, should now be performed and fulfilled upon the Nations of England and Scotland, being now reunited in the Ancient Mother name of Britain, as a full period of all instability and peregrinations: fo that as it cometh to pass in Maffive bodies, that they have certain trepidations and waverings before they fix and fettle; so it seemeth that by the providence of GOD this Monarchy, before it was to settle in your Majesty and your generations, (in which, I hope, it is now established for ever,) had these prelufive changes and varieties.

For Lives, I do find it strange that these times have fo little esteemed the virtues of the times, as that the Writing of Lives fhould be no more frequent. For although there be not many Sovereign Princes or absolute commanders, and that States are most collected into Monarchies, yet are there many worthy perfonages that deferve better than dispersed Report or barren Eulogies. For herein the invention of one of the late Poets is proper, and doth well enrich the ancient fiction: for he feigneth that at the end of the thread or Web of every man's life

there was a little Medal containing the Perfon's name, and that Time waited upon the fhears; and as foon as the thread was cut, caught the Medals, and carried them to the River of Lethe; and about the bank there were many Birds flying up and down, that would get the Medals and carry them in their Beak a little while, and then let them fall into the River: only there were a few Swans, which if they got a Name, would carry it to a Temple where it was Confecrate.

And although many men, more mortal in their affections than in their bodies, do esteem defire of name andmemory but as a vanity and ventofity,

Animi nil magnæ laudis egentes;

which opinion cometh from that Root, Non prius laudes contempfimus, quam laudanda facere defivimus: yet that will not alter Solomon's judgment, Memoria Jufti cum laudibus, at impiorum nomen putrefcet: the one flourisheth, the other either confumeth to present oblivion, or turneth to an ill odour. And therefore in that ftyle or addition, which is and hath been long well received and brought in use, Felicis memoriæ, piæ memoriæ, bonæ memoriæ, we do acknowledge that which Cicero faith, borrowing it from Demofthenes, that Bona Fama propria possessio defunctorum; which possesfion I cannot but note that in our times it lieth much waste, and that therein there is a Deficience.

For Narrations and Relations of particular ac