Examples of this Kind; and I cannot but think, if the Archdeacon had duely weighed the Difficulties inseparable from his Undertaking, the indispensable Duty of Sincerity and Truth, and the great Talents necessary for an Historian, he would have transferred the Work to another, not a Dealer in Records only, from whom one can expect nothing but the naked Facts without Form or Order, without Ornament, or even cloathing; very proper for Evidence in Tryals at Law, but too rude and unpolished for the Beauty and Elegance of History: Yet I am satisfied, there is not one Man in a Thousand in _England_, but thinks there are no Writers so fit to make Historians as your Record Keepers and Library Keepers, who are just as necessary in such Work as Masons and Carpenters are in Architecture, and no more in Comparison with the Architect, than the _Axe_ or the _Chissel_ are in Comparison with them. _An excellent Historian_, says Mons. _Pellisson_, Pref. to _Sar._ _ought to have a general Knowledge of the World and of Affairs, and a subtle and penetrating Wit, to distinguish the true Causes of humane Actions, from the Pretexts and Colours which are given them_. Thus our Historian should have distinguish'd Archbishop _Laud_'s natural Pride and Severity, from that Piety and Zeal which are the _Pretexts and Colours_ that are given them. He should also have distinguish'd the Pique and Partiality in the Grand Rebellion from Truth and Sincerity, which are the Pretexts and Colours. Again, _Tacitus_, said he, wrote _Sine studio Partium & Ira_; if the same may be said of the two Historians in Question, I have done them much Wrong. The late Earl of _Shaftsbury_, in his Letter of _Enthusiasm_, has this Expression: _We have few modern Writers, who, like_ Xenophon _or_ Cicero, _can write their own Commentaries, and the raw Memoir Writings, and uninformed Pieces of modern Statesmen full of their own interested and private Views, will, in another Age, be of little Service to support their Memory or Name, since already the World begins to sicken with them_.