1(S97.] on the Picturesque in History. 325 



forgot that lie was heir to the throne of Denmark, and could not act 

 in such a way that righteous vengeance should seem to be private 

 ambition. He could not escape from his attachment to society, and 

 therefore he will always fail to have the picturesqueness which 

 belongs to individual detachment. 



I have been speaking of picturesqueness in its ordinary sens6. 

 The upshot of my remarks is that in proportion as history is pic- 

 turesque in this sense it is not really history. For history is con- 

 cerned with the life of the community, and picturesqueness with the 

 character of individuals. But there is, I think, a larger and truer 

 picturesqueness, which may be found not in details but in principles. 

 The great object of liistory is to trace the continuity of national life, 

 and to discover and estimate the ideas on which that life is founded. 

 Individuals are only valuable as they express those ideas and embody 

 that life. Such expressions are often to be found in lowly places, and 

 are manifested in inconspicuous lives. It is the true function of 

 history to discover and exhibit them wherever they may be. In our 

 own history, at all events, I am convinced that we need a heightened 

 sense of the causes which produced those qualities which have created 

 the British Empire. The most picturesque hero is the English people 

 itself, growing through manifold training into the full manhood which 

 it still enjoys. What made it ? What principles does it embody ? 

 How may these principles be enlarged in view of its great and growing 

 responsibilities ? These are questions which have an undying 

 interest, and men's minds are being more and more turned towards 

 them. For us, at all events, the highest imaginative charm gathers, 

 not round individuals, but round the growth of our conceptions of 

 public duty. To trace the growth of that body of ideas wliich make 

 up England's contribution to the world's progress, to estimate their 

 defects, and to consider how they may be increased by broader 

 sympathies and greater teachableness — this is a task which requires 

 the (jualities at once of a scientific explorer and of a consummate 

 aitist. 



Vol. XV. (No. 91.) 



