CHAPTER I. 515 which relate to one subject ; that is, all the affairs of one war, one league, one confederacy, one council, &c. though it lasted many years, and under many rulers. So in writing, the lives of men, ,which is called biography, some authors follow the tract of their years, and place every thing in the precise order of time when it occurred ; others throve the temper and character of their persons, their private life, their pub - licstations, their personal occurrences, their domestic conduct, their speeches, their books or writings, their sickness and death, into so many distinct chapters. In chronology some writers make their epochas to begin all with one letter : so in the book called Ductor Historicus, the periods all begin with C ; as, creation, cateclysm, or deluge, Chaldean empire, Cyrus, Christ, Constantine, &c. Some divide their accounts of time according to the four great monarchies Assyrian, Persian, Grecian and Roman. Others think it serves the memory best to divide all their subjects into the remarkable number of sevens ; so Prideaux has written an Introduction to History. And there is a book of divinity called Fasciculus Con - troversarium, by an author of the same name, written in the same method, wherein every controversy has seven questions belong, ing to it ; though the order of nature seems to be too much neg- lected by a confinement to this septenary number. Those writers and speakers, whosechief business is to amuse or delight, to allure, terrify, or persuade mankind, do not confine themselves to any natural order, but in a cryptical or hidden method, adapt every thing to their designed ends. Sometimes they omit those things which might injure their design, or grow tedious to their hearers, though they seem to have a necessay re- lation to the point in hand : sometimesthey add those things which have no great reference to the subject, but are suited to allure or refresh the mind and the ear. They dilate sometimes, and flourish long upon little incidents, and they skip over, and but lightly touch the drier part of the theme. They place the first things last, and the last things first, with wondrous art, and yet so man- age it as to conceal their artifice, and lead the senses and passions of their hearers into a pleasing and powerful captivity. It is chiefly poesy and oratory that require the practice of this kind of arbitrary method ; they omit things essential which are not beautiful, they insert little needless circumstances, and beautiful digressions, they invert times and actions, in order to place every thing in the most affecting light, and for this end in their practice they neglect all logical forms ; yet a good acquaint- ance with the forms of Logic and natural method is of admirable use to those who would attain these arts in perfection. Hereby they will be able to range their own thoughts in such a method and scheme, as to take a more large and comprehensive sur xk2
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