ABSTRACT
All histories, it may be said, must partake of the nature of a narrative; in fact, narrative is the basic element of historical composition. Continental writers are in the habit of claiming that the new historiography was the work of Voltaire, and that all others who participated in the movement were necessarily his disciples. Thus Hume, Gibbon, and Robertson are generally grouped together as the 'school of Voltaire in England', while Schlzer, Schmidt, Spittler, and Planck are similarly styled his German followers. Hume belonged both to the old dispensation and to the new. In general, he worked on the old chronicle plan of writing history by reigns, and confining his attention solely to political events; but from time to time he suspends the even flow of his narrative to gather up, after the manner, though without the distinction, of Voltaire, the non-political features of each period before embarking upon fresh material.
