49,568 16 Total 924,041 2 5 rians. Ancient poverty is converted into fuperfluity; there is fcarce a city that is not defrous of having its own hiftory. We are overwhelmed with trifles. The man, who is defirous of real inftruction, is obliged to confine himself to great events, and to difregard little ones; fuch a perfon, in the multitude of revolutions, feizes the fpirit and genius of ages, and the manners of nations. Above all, he muft fix his attention on the history of his own country, ftudy it, be maf ter 69. Voltaire's Reflections on Modern Hiftorians. r of it, enter minutely into it, and ntent himself with a general view other nations. Their history is no rther interesting than as it is conted with his own, or on account of e great things they have performed. The first ages after the fall of the Rean empire are only, as has been alady obferved, barbarous adventures nder barbarous names, excepting e age of Charlemagne. The North favage till the fixteenth century: e quarrels of the emperors of Gerany and the popes fpread defolation ver Italy during fix centuries. All confufion in Spain till the reign of erdinand and Itabella. France, till ewis the Eleventh, is a prey to intine calamities, under a weak goernment. Daniel alledges that the arly times of France are more inteefting than thofe of Rome; but he oes not confider that the weaker the eginnings of a valt empire are, the aore interesting they are, and that ve take pleasure in feeing the fmall urce of a mighty torrent, which has verwhelmed half the globe. The utility of history confifts in the omparison which statesmen and citiens may make of the laws and maners of other countries with thofe of heir own this comparison excites sodern nations to vie with one anoher in arts, commerce, and agriculare. Great errors committed in paft ges are of great confequence to future ges; and the crimes and calamities ccafioned by abfurd quarrels cannot e too frequently repeated, or repreented in too strong colours; for it is ertain, that by renewing the meory of fuch quarrels, the return of hem is often prevented. But the great ufe of modern history, nd the advantage it has over ancient tory, arifes from its fhewing that, er fince the fifteenth century, whener a prince became too powerful, a onfederacy was formed against him. This fyftem of the balance of power be ancients had no idea of ; and hence may account for the aftonishing fucels of the Romans, who, having ormed a militia fuperior to that of her nations, fubdued them one after other from the Tiber to the Eu rates. The uncertainty of biftory.-Times generally distinguished into fabu 373 lous and hiftorical; but the hiftorical times themselves fhould be diftinguished into truths and tables. I do not mean thofe fables which are now ac knowledged as fuch; the prodigies, for example, with which Livy has embellished or spoiled his history, are out of the queftion. But, in regard to what is generally believed, are thefe not many reafons for doubting? If we confider that the Roman republic was five hundred years without hiftorians, that Livy himlelf laments the lofs of the annals and other monuments, which were almost all destroyed when the city was burnt; pleraque interiere; if we reflect that in the first three hundred years of Rome the art of writing was little known, rare per eadem tempora litera; we thall find eaton to entertain doubts concerning all thofe events which are out of the ordinary courfe of human affairs. Is it probable that Romulus was obliged to carry off the Sabine women by force? Is the history of Lucretia probable? Can we readily believe, upon the faith of Livy, that King Porfenna was filled with admiration of the Romans, because a fanatic wanted to affaffinate him? Is it not more reasonable, on the contrary, to believe Polybius, who wrote two hundred years before Livy, and who tells us that Porfenna fubdued the Romans? Are we to credit the account which is given of the punishment which the Carthaginians inflicted upon Regulus? If it had been true, would not Polybius, who lived at the time, have spoken of it? But he fays nor one word of the matter; and does not this afford reafon to fufpect that the ftory was invented long after, in order to render the Carthaginians odious? Open Moreri's dictionary at the article Regulus, and you fee him affirming that the punishment of this Roman is mentioned by Livy. Now that part of Livy's hiftory which relates to this affair happens to be loft, and, instead of it, we have only the fupplement of Frenthemius, fo that Moreri only quotes a German of the feventeenth century, instead of a Roman in the days of Auguftus. Are public monuments, annual ceremonies, and medals, hiftorical proofs? One is naturally difpofed to believe that a monument, erected by a nation in order to celebrate an event, 374 Voltaire on the Uncertainty of Hiftory, event, fhews the certainty of that event. If fuch monuments, however, were not raised by cotemporaries, if they celebrate improbable events, they prove nothing but a defire to confecrate a popular opinion. The roftral column, erected in Rome by the cotemporaries of Duilius, is unquestionably a proof of the naval victory gained by Duilius. But does the ftatue of the augur Navius, who divided a flint with a razor, prove that Navius performed this prodigy? Are the ftatues of Ceres and Triptolemus, in Athens, undoubted proofs that Ceres taught the Athenians agriculture? Does the famous Laocoon, which is ftill entire, prove the truth of the hiftory of the Trojan horse? Ceremonies and annual feftivals eftablished by a whole nation are no better proofs of the originals to which they relate. Almost all the Roman, Syrian, Grecian, and Egyptian feftivals were founded upon filly and ridiculous tales, as well as the temples and ftatues of their ancient heroes. They were monuments of credulity confecrated to error. A medal, even a cotemporary one, is not always a proof. How many medals have been truck by flattery upon occafion of battles which were far from being decisive, though dignified with the title of victories? In the war of the English against the Spaniards, in the year 1740, was there not a medal ftruck, to fhew that Carthagena was taken by Admiral Vernon, at the very time that this admiral was raifing the fiege of it? Medals are only unquestionable vouchers, when the event is attefted by cotemporary authors; the proofs, in this cafe, fupport each other, and establish the truth. Are harangues to be inferted in history, and characters to be drawn? If, upon an important occafion, a general or a ftateiman has fpoken in a ftriking and remarkable manner, characteristical of his genius and that of the age he lived in, his fpeech ought undoubtedly to be inferted word for word; fnch fpeeches are perhaps the moft ufeful parts of history. But why make a man fay what he never faid? We might almolt as well attribute actions to him which he never performed; this is July nothing but an imitation of one of Homer's fictions. But what in a poem is a mere fiction, is in a hiftorian a lye. Several of the ancients, indeed, adopted this method; but this only proves that feveral of the ancients were fond of displaying their eloquence, though at the expence of truth. Characters very often fhew a greater defire to shine than to inAtruct: cotemporary writers, indeed, have a right to draw the characters of thofe ftatefmen with whom they negociated, or of those generals under whom they ferved. But how much is it to be feared that the pencil will be guided by paffion? The characters in Clarendon are drawn with more partiality, gravity, and wisdom, than thofe we read with fo much pleature in Cardinal de Retz. But to be desirous of painting the antients, to attempt unfolding the inmost receffes of their breasts, to look upon events as characters, by means of which we may clearly read the very fecrets of their hearts, is an enterprize of a very delicate nature, and in many writers a mere puerility. Cicero lays it down as a maxim, that an hiftorian fhould never dare to tell a falfhood, or conceal a truth. The first part of this precept is inconteftible: we must examine the other. If a truth can be of any advantage to a ftate, your filence is highly blameable. But if you are writing the hiftory of a prince who has trufted you with a fecret, are you to reveal that fecret? Are you to tell pofterity what it would be criminal in you to tell in confidence to any individual? Muft the duty of an hiftorian prevail over a ftill higher duty? Suppofe you had been witness to a frailty which had no influence on human affairs, are you to reveal this frailty? If fo, hiftory would degenerate into fatire. Concerning the Ayle and manner writing biftory. hall fay very little upon this fubject, as fo much has been already written upon it. We know that the ftyle and manner of Livy, his gravity, and his fage elo quence, are well fuited to the majefty of the Roman republic; that Tacitus is an admirable painter of tyrants that Polybius excels in laying down the 1769. And the Style and Manner of writing it. the maxims of war; and Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus in writing of antiquities. But in copying after thefe great mafters, the moderns have a more difficult task than they had. We expect from modern hiftorians more detail, facts more clearly proved, greater precifion in dates, more attention to cuftoms, laws, manners, commerce, finances, and agriculture. It is with hiftory as with mathematics and natural philofophy, the career is wonderfully enlarged. It is expected that you write the hiftory of a foreign country in a different manner from that of your own. If you are writing the hiftory of France, you are not obliged to describe the courfe of the Seine or the Loire; but if you are writing the hiftory of the Portuguese conquests in Afia, you muft give the topography of the difcovered countries. You must lead your reader by the hand along the coaft of Africa and Perfia, you must 375 acquaint him with the manners, the laws, and customs of countries new to Europe. If you have nothing to tell us, but that one barbarian fucceeds another barbarian on the banks of the Oxus, what benefit does the public derive from your hiftory? The method which is proper for a history of your own country, is not proper for writing an account of the discoveries of the new world. The hiftory of a city is very different from that of a great empire, and the life of an individual must be written differently from the hiftory of Spain or England. These rules are fufficiently known; but the art of writing history well, will ever be very uncommon. We know that the tyle of history muft be grave, pure, various, and agreeable; there are laws for writing hif tory, as there are for every other species of compofition: we have precepts in abundance, but we have few great artists. An IMPARTIAL REVIEW of NEW PUBLICATIONS. ARTICLE I. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS; giving fome Account of the prefent Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the ingenious in many confiderable Parts of the World. 4to. Vol. LVIII. For the Year 1768. Davis and Reymers. In an advertisement prefixed to the voJame before us, the Royal Society declare, that as a body they never deliver their fentiments upon any fubject, and that the thanks which they give from the chair, to the authors of any papers, are to be confidered not as recommendations to the world, but as marks of civility for the refpect with which they are treated in the communication. They hope therefore the public will attend to this circumftance, and not pay any regard to the illiberal oftentation of thofe who endeavour to profitute their politenefs in this refpect to mercenary purpofes. The prefent volume contains many curious papers on various fubjects, which muft be deemed a valuable acquifition to fcience, and we doubt not but the following extract will prove entertaining to our readers. An Account of a particular Species of Cameleon: [Read June 12, 1768.] attention of many natural hiftorians; not ony on account of the particular ftructure of its parts, but also of feveral curious phænomena which are peculiar to it, in its several fpecies, in the different parts of the world. This animal is ranged by authors under the generical name Lacerta, which comprehends a great variety of all fizes from the crocodile to the fmalleft lizard: but as the Cameleon has its various fpecies, and each fuch properties as are not common to any others under the tribe of Lacertæ, they indeed deferve to be regarded as a particular genus. However, fince authors have been very full in their accounts of thefe creatures; which every one, curious in their enquiries into the hiftory of animal, may have recourfe to, collected in an excellent work intitled, Dillionaire raisonné des Animaux, I fhall only entertain the learned fociety with a defcription of a fpecies of cameleon which I consider as a non-defcript, having made a careful refearch concerning this animal among authors, and feen feveral kinds of them, as well as various figures in every history I am acquainted with; from all which the fubject before us is very different. It is chiefly in the fructure of the head that this difference appears, and its fingularity induced me to oblerve it with attention; for the head is very large in proportion to the rest of this animal, and all others of the fame 376 ་ THE IMPARTIAL REVIEW fame clafs; and the more fo, if we measure from the two anterior flat proceffes, to the pofterior extremity or procefs of the cranium, which measures three inches and a quarter. This pofterior procefs extends backwards, over the neck, to the first vertical proces of the spine, and the interior proceffes, one on each fide, project forwards and upwards in an oblique direction over the natal hole, and are bluntly ferrated all round; the furface of the entire face is covered with tubercles and fcales, which, by being in a dry fate, have loft their protuberance and luftre, which the fcales certainly were endowed with while the animal was alive. The length of the two mandibles is equal, and is two inches and a quarter from the articulation of the lower with the upper jaw, to the apex of each; both being furnished with a fine fet of fmall pointed teeth; all of a fize, and fo fet, that, upon the animal's clofing his mouth, the teeth do not meet, but thofe of the upper fall in with those of the under alternately. There are no molares nor canine teeth. The orbits are extremely large and deep, fo that this cameleon must have had very great eyes, and very globular; for they are each more than a third of the whole length of the mandible in diameter. From a close infpection of the skin, which is now contracted and dried close to the ikeleton, it appears fealed all over; the larger fcales are upon part of the head and upon the fides of the neck; the fmaller, under the jaws, upon the neck, and over the whole body; but we can form no idea of its proper colour whilft the animal is alive, yet do not doubt of its having had a very beautiful covering. Almost every fpecies of Lacerta have five fingers upon each extremity; all the cameleons have them, but they differ in the dif pofition of the fingers; this before us has the tarfal, metatarsal, and three bones to each finger, as it is in human hands: in this cameleon the fingers are very long, and terminated with pointed nails bending downwards; three of the fingers of each anterior extremity are inwards in the place of the thumb, and the other two are outwards; whereas in the pofterior extremities. three are outwards, having between them fuch a large space, or divifion, as is between the thumb and fingers of men. But this diftribution of the fingers I faw in one of the triangular-headed cameleons: other 'pecies have the five fingers together, and very fhort like fumps; but that defcribed by Pitfield, from the diffections of the Royal academy, has its fingers difpofed in the fame manner with this, and is one of thofe with a triangular head and cheft. 1 The vertical edge of the fpine is fcolloped all along from the neck to the extremity of July the tail, and has on each fide a row of knobs, or proceffes, as far as the articulation of the thigh with the bone that runs up towards the fpine; but from thence, where the tail begins, there is a fecond lateral row of knobs, which continue all along the tail. There does not appear any paffage into the head for hearing, nor any other but the mouth and nafal holes; which is alfo taken notice of by the Royal Academy in their obfervations upon that mentioned above. This made Bellonius imagine, that these nafal holes ferve cameleons for hearing as well as breathing; fo that it fhould feem, that more fpecies than one are deftitute of au ditory holes. This fubject came into my hands from the owner Mr. Millan, who was kind enough to leave it with me for the purpose of laying it before the Royal Society; we have no knowledge of its native place, as be bought it among other natural productions now in his collection. II. An Efay upon Animal Reproductions. By Abbe Spallanzani, F.R.S. and Profeifer of Pbilofopby in the University of Modena. Trazflated from the Italian. 8vo. is. 6d. Becket. The celebrated author of this piece, which was written at the defire of Dr. Maty, hai here difplayed a confiderable knowledge of his fubject, and enriched the world with a production, which cannot fail of being warmly admired by the lovers of natural hiftory. III. The original Power of the collective Body of the People of England examined and afferted. By Daniel de Foe. To which are added, by the fame Author, fome diftinguifbing Characters of a Parliament-man. Baldwin. Daniel de Foe, the author of the Trueborn Englishman, is well known in this country; and the various pieces which have been written by him, are remarkable for an extraordinary portion both of intelligence and feverity. The prefent performance, which is calculated for the meridian of the prefent hour, vindicates the rights of the people, in a vein of ftrong reafoning, and will doubtles give fatisfaction to every uninformed mem ber of the community. To thofe converfast with our conftitution it cannot be of any extraordinary fervice, as they must be fenfile that the origin of all power is originally derived from, as well as intended for the happinefs of, the people. IV. The Farmer's Journey to London. Á The author of this piece, which is flup'd beyond the poffibility of defcription, has no thing but a laudable motive to urge in favour of his performance; yet as we have met fome dunces without even fuch a ples, we fhall pais him over lightly, and forget the poet entirely in the man. V. Genuine Memoirs of the Life and Al |