For we see the chronicle
which was read before Ahasuerus, when he could not take rest,
contained matter of affairs, indeed, but such as had passed in his
own time and very lately before. But the journal of Alexander's
house expressed every small particularity, even concerning his
person and court; and it is yet a use well received in enterprises
memorable, as expeditions of war, navigations, and the like, to keep
diaries of that which passeth continually.
(12) I cannot likewise be ignorant of a form of writing which some
grave and wise men have used, containing a scattered history of
those actions which they have thought worthy of memory, with politic
discourse and observation thereupon: not incorporate into the
history, but separately, and as the more principal in their
intention; which kind of ruminated history I think more fit to place
amongst books of policy, whereof we shall hereafter speak, than
amongst books of history. For it is the true office of history to
represent the events themselves together with the counsels, and to
leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and
faculty of every man's judgment.
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