ABSTRACT
MANY ATTEMPTS HAVE BEEN MADE to define the genera and species of history, but none has gained scientific standing. The historian may properly conclude that the right divisions of his subject are those which best suit his own purposes. To indicate the range and variety of seventeenth-century English historical literature, a classification of works by their titles would suffice. To make provision for the importance of philosophical theory and environmental influence in the development of historiography, a classification in terms of purpose and content is needed. In order to evaluate change and progress in the writing of history, methodological problems must be considered, even though few contemporary historians wrote essays on method. In selecting historical works to illustrate the varieties of history, arbitrary choices have been made, for as Ralegh rightly observed, ‘the sea of examples hath no bottom’.
