The following extract from Charles Lamb ought to be added to the
_testimonia_ already given by "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. i., pp. 40. 181.
341. 493.):--
"_Burnet's Own Times._--Did you ever read that garrulous,
pleasant history? He tells his story like an old man past
political service, bragging to his sons on winter evenings of
the part he took in public transactions when his 'old cap was
new.' Full of scandal, which all true history is. So palliative;
but all the stark wickedness that actually gives the _momentum_
to national actors. Quite the prattle of age and outlived
importance. Truth and sincerity staring out upon you perpetually
_in alto relievo_. Himself a party-man, he makes you a
party-man. None of the cursed philosophical Humeian
indifference, 'so cold and unnatural and inhuman.' None of the
cursed Gibbonian fine writing, so fine and composite. None of
Dr. Robertson's periods with three members. None of Mr. Roscoe's
sage remarks, all so apposite and coming in so clever, lest the
reader should have had the trouble of drawing an inference.
Burnet's good old prattle I can bring present to my mind; I can
make the Revolution present to me."--_Charles Lamb: Letters_.