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LETTER II.

Britilh anceflors were recorded in thofe of theirbards. The favages of America have the famecuftom at this day: and long hiftorical ballads oftheir huntings and their wars are fung at all theirfeftivals. There is no need of faying how thispaffion grows, among civilized nations, in propor-tion to the means of gratifying if. but let us ob-ferve that the fame principle of nature directs usas ftrongly, and more generally as well as moreearly, to indulge our own curiofity, inftead ofpreparing to gratify that of others. The childhearkens with delight to the tales of his nurfe: helearns to read, and he devours with eagernefsfabulous legends and novels : in riper years heapplies himl'elf to hiftory, or to that which hetakes for hiftory, to authorized romance: and,even in age, the defire of knowing what has hap-pened to other men , yields to the defire alone ofrelating what has happened to ourfelves. Thushiftory , true or falfe, fpeaks to our paffionsalways. What pity is it, my lord, that even thebeft fhould fpeak to our underftandings fo feldom ?That it does fo, we have none to blame but our-felves. Nature has done her part. She has open-ed this ftudy to every man who can read andthink: and what fhe has made the rood agreeable,reafon can make the moft ufeful, application of ourminds. But if we confult our reafon, we ffiall befar from following the examples of our fellow-creatimes, in this as in moft other cafes, who arefo proud of being rational. We fhall neither readto footh our indolence, nor to gratify our vanity: