ways at Variance with the other half. I have met with People who aſſur'd me that the Duke of Marlborough was a Coward, and that Mr. Pope was a Fool; juſt as ſome Jeſuits in France declare Paſcal to have been a Man of little or no Genius; and ſome Janſeniſts affirm Father Bourdaloüe to have been a mere Babbler. The Jacobites conſider Mary Queen of Scots as a pious Heroine, but thoſe of an oppoſite Party look upon her as a Proſtitute, an Adultereſs, a Murtherer. Thus the Engliſh have Memorials of the ſeveral Reigns, but no ſuch Thing as a Hiſtory. There is indeed now living, one Mr. Gordon, (the Publick are oblig'd to him for a Tranſlation of Tacitus) who is very capable of writing the Hiſtory of his own Country, but Rapin de Thoyras got the Start of him. To conclude, in my Opinion, the Englſh have not ſuch good Hiſtorians as the French, have no ſuch Thing as a real Tragedy, have ſeveral delightful Comedies, ſome wonderful Paſſages in certain of their Poems, and boaſt of Philoſophers
that
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