tragedy, which all readers would be glad to see ending
differently.

At different times Mackenzie edited _The Mirror_ and _The Lounger_, and he
has been called the restorer of the Essay. His story of the venerable _La
Roche_, contributed to _The Mirror_, is perhaps the best specimen of his
powers as a sentimentalist: it portrays the influence of Christianity, as
exhibited in the very face of infidelity, to support the soul in the
sorest of trials--the death of an only and peerless daughter.

His contributions to the above-named periodicals were very numerous and
popular.

The name of his first novel was applied to himself as a man. He was known
as the _man of feeling_ to the whole community. This was a misnomer: he
was kind and affable; his evening parties were delightful; but he had
nothing of the pathetic or sentimental about him. On the contrary, he was
humorous, practical, and worldly-wise; very fond of field sports and
athletic exercises. His sentiment--which has been variously criticized, by
some as the perfection of moral pathos, and by others as lackadaisical and
canting--may be said to have sprung rather from his observations of life
and manners than to have welled spontaneously from any source within his
own heart.

Sterne and Goldsmith will be read as long as the English language lasts,
and their representative characters will be quoted as models and standards
everywhere: Mackenzie is fast falling into an oblivion from which he will
only be resuscitated by the historian of English Literature.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE HISTORICAL TRIAD IN THE SCEPTICAL AGE.

The Sceptical Age. David Hume. History of England. Metaphysics. Essay
on Miracles. Robertson. Histories. Gibbon. The Decline and Fall.

THE SCEPTICAL AGE.

History presents itself to the student in two forms: The first is
_chronicle_, or a simple relation of facts and statistics; and the second,
_philosophical history_, in which we use these facts and statistics in the
consideration of cause and effect, and endeavor to extract a moral from
the actions and events recorded. From pregnant causes the philosophic
historian traces, at long distances, the important results; or,
conversely, from the present condition of things--the good and evil around
him--he runs back, sometimes remotely, to the causes from which they have
sprung. Chronicle is very pleasing to read, and the reader may be, to some
extent, his own philosopher; but the impor