thoſe Writers who profeſs to diſcloſe the Revolutions of Countries, than to imitate the painful and voluminous Hiſtorian, who to preſerve the Regularity of his Series thinks himſelf obliged to fill up as much Paper with the Detail of Months and Years in which nothing remarkable happened, as he employs upon thoſe notable Æras when the greateſt Scenes have been tranſacted on the human Stage.
Such Hiſtories as theſe do, in reality, very much reſemble a News-Paper, which conſiſts of juſt the ſame Number of Words, whether there be any News in it or not. They may likewiſe be compared to a Stage-Coach, which performs conſtantly the fame Courſe, empty as well as full. The Writer, indeed, ſeems to think himſelf obliged to keep even Pace with Time, whoſe Amanuenſis he is; and, like his Maſter, travels as ſlowly through Centuries of monkiſh Dulneſs, when the World ſeems to have been aſleep, as through that bright and buſy Age ſo nobly diſtinguiſhed by the excellent Latin Poet.
“Ad confligendum cenientibus undique pœnis;
Omnia cum belli trepido concuſſa tumultu
“Horrida
