It is this confusion of the great and the little, thus artlessly
blended together, that constitutes one of the charms of the old
romantic chronicle, - not the less true that, in this respect, it
approaches nearer to the usual tone of romance. It is in such
writings that we may look to find the form and pressure of the
age. The worm-eaten state-papers, official correspondence,
public records, are all serviceable, indispensable, to history.
They are the framework on which it is to repose; the skeleton of
facts which gives it its strength and proportions. But they are
as worthless as the dry bones of the skeleton, unless clothed
with the beautiful form and garb of humanity, and instinct with
the spirit of the age. - Our debt is large to the antiquarian,
who with conscientious precision lays broad and deep the
foundations of historic truth; and no less to the philosophic
annalist who exhibits man in the dress of public life, - man in
masquerade; but our gratitude must surely not be withheld from
those, who, like Garcilasso de la Vega, and many a romancer of
the Middle Ages, have held up the mirror - distorted though it
may somewhat be - to the interior of life, reflecting every
object, the great and the mean, the beautiful and the deformed,
with their natural prominence and their vivacity of coloring, to
the eye of the spectator. As a work of art, such a production
may be thought to be below criticism. But, although it defy the
rules of art in its composition, it does not necessarily violate
the principles of taste; for it conforms in its spirit to the
spirit of the age in which it was written.
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