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calamitous war which might have been finifhedby a glorious peace, the lofs of liberty to thoufandsof Roman citizens , and to Regulus himfelf thelofs of life in the mid ft of torments , if we areentirely to credit what is perhaps exaggeration inthe Roman authors.
There is another advantage , worthy our obfer-vation, that belongs to the ftudy of hiftory; andthat 1 fhall mention here, not only becaufe of theimportance of it, but becaufe it leads me imme-diately to fpeak of the nature of the improvementwe ought to have in our view , and of the methodin which it feems to me that this improvementought to be purfued: two particulars from whichyour lo rdfliip may think perhaps that I digrefs toolong. The advantage I mean confifts in this, thatthe examples which hiftory prefents to us , both ofmen and of events; are generally complete: thewhole example is before us , and confequently thewhole leffon , or fometimes the various leffons ,which philofophy propofes to teach us by thisexample. For firft, as to men: we fee them attheir whole length in hiftory, and we fee themgenerally there through a medium lefs partial atleaft than that of experience : for I imagine, thata whig or a tory, whilft thofe parties fubfifted,would have condemned in Saturninus the fpiritof fadlion which he applauded in his own Tribunes,and would have applauded in Drusus the fpirit ofmoderation which he defpifed in thofe of the con-trary party, and which he fufpedted and hated inthofe of his own party. The villain who has
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