put into its final form the _History_ on
which he had been engaged since 1683. He gave special attention to his
characters, some of which he entirely rewrote. They at once invited
comparison with Clarendon's, and first impressions, then as now, were
not in their favour. 'His characters are miserably wrought,' said
Swift.[2]

Burnet was in close touch with the political movements of his time.
'For above thirty years,' he wrote, 'I have lived in such intimacy
with all who have had the chief conduct of affairs, and have been so
much trusted, and on so many important occasions employed by them,
that I have been able to penetrate far into the true secrets of
counsels and designs.'[3] He had a retentive memory, and a full share
of worldly wisdom. But he was not an artist like Clarendon. His style
has none of the sustained dignity, the leisurely evolution, which in
Clarendon is so strangely at variance with the speed of composition.
All is stated, nothing suggested. There is a succession of short
sentences, each perfectly clear in itself, often unlinked to what
precedes or follows, and always without any of the finer shades of
meaning. It is rough work, and on the face of it hasty, and so it
would have remained, no matter how often it had been revised. Again,
Burnet does not always have perfect control of the impression he
wishes to convey. It is as if he did not have the whole character in
his mind before he began to write, but collected his thoughts from
the stores of his memory in the process of composition. We are often
uncertain how to understand a character before we have read it all. In
some cases he seems to be content to present us with the material from
which, once we have pieced it together ourselves, we can form our own
judgement. But what he tells us has been vividly felt by him, and is
vividly presented. The great merit of his characters lies in their
realism. Of the Earl of Lauderdale he says that 'He made a very ill
appearance: He was very big: His hair red, hanging oddly about him:
His tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him bedew all that
he talked to.' There is no hint of this in Clarendon's character of
Lauderdale, nor could Clarendon have spoken with the same directness.
Burnet has no circumlocutions, just as in private life he was
not known to indulge in them. When he reports what was said in
conversation he gives the very words. Lauderdale 'was a man, as the
Duke of Buckingham called him to me