Let. 9. General Hiftory of Europe . 307

of the fame compafs. The motives , and themeafures, by which it was protracted, the truereafons why it ended in a manner, which appearednot proportionable to it’s fuccefs; and the newpolitical ftate into which Europe was thrown bythe treaties of Utrecht and Baden, are fubjeCts onwhich few perfons have the neceffary informations ,and yet every one fpeaks with alfurance, and evenwith paflion. I think I could fpeak on them withfome knowledge, and with as much indifferenceas Polybius does of the negociations of his fatherLycoutas, even in thofe points where I wasmyfelf an aCtor.

I will even confefs to you, that I fhould notdefpair of performing this part better than theformer. There is nothing in my opinion fo hardto execute, as thofe political maps, if you willallow me fuch an expreffion, and thofe fyftems ofhints, rather than relations of events, which areneceffary to conned and explain them ; and whichmuft be fo concife, and yet fo full; fo complicate,and yet fo clear. I know nothing of this fort welldone by the ancients. Sallust ’s introduction, aswell as that of THUCYDIDES , might ferve almoffcfor any other piece of the Roman or Greek ftory,as well as for thofe which thefe two great authorschofe. Polybius does not come up, in his intro-duction , to this idea neither. Among the moderns,the firft book of Machiavel ’s Hiftory of Florenceis a noble original of this kind: and perhaps fatherPaul’s Hiftory of Benefices is, in the fame kindof compofition , inimitable.

X 3