CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



chief towns, &c. is to be considered as a gross 

 violation of every principle of descriptive or ex- 

 pository art. In some of the larger geographical 

 works, such as Ritter's, and the articles on Geog- 

 raphy in the Penny Cyclopedia, the proper order 

 of description is in general well exemplified. 



The full geographical detail includes, in addi- 

 tion to the situation, features, and climate of the 

 country, the nature of the soil and strata, the 

 vegetable and animal life that flourish in it, and 

 the population considered as to its race and con- 

 nections with the great human family. 



2. The second principle of historical composi- 

 tion relates to the tissue and substance of the 

 narrative itself. A history ought properly to be a 

 series of pictures or cross sections of a nation's 

 existence appropriately selected from different 

 epochs, with an intermediate narrative to explain 

 how the one became transformed into the other. 



It is to be understood that mere existence does 

 not furnish matter for history. If a people have 

 got themselves into a quiet routine of being born, 

 growing up in the exact footsteps of their fathers, 

 and dying, to be succeeded by others like them- 

 selves, and continuing thus from generation to 

 generation without progress or change all that 

 can be stated of such a people is, how they exist 

 at any one time, or what are the incidents of a 

 single generation : there is no material for a con- 

 tinuous narrative. There are many societies very 

 nearly in this predicament : the Chinese are an 

 example of a people with a high civilisation, but 

 with very little tendency to change ; and most of 

 the savage tribes of America and Africa, and the 

 wandering hordes of Asia, are still more destitute 

 of the subject-matter of a history. Progress, 

 change, expansion, development, all that we mean 

 by civilisation, form the substantial matters of his- 

 torical narration. 



The most prominent spectacle usually presented 

 by nations is their quarrels with their neighbours, 

 with the struggles and wars that ensue, and the 

 loss or gain of territory incident to contests. Every 

 kind of strife, contention, and combat, where large 

 interests are at stake, and the human powers 

 exerted to their very utmost, has an exciting effect 

 on the beholder, and makes a stirring narrative to 

 a reader. The historian, anxious to make his 

 work as little dull as may be, is glad to have such 

 matters to throw into it ; indeed, they are apt to 

 be the chief things to seize his own attention. 

 Hence the real substance of history has often 

 been concealed by the prominence of the exciting 

 and bustling drama of battle, victory, and death. 

 The internal struggles of a nation for the posses- 

 sion of the sovereign power have the same dramatic 

 interest, in addition to their importance in the 

 real history of the people. 



Although it is impossible to lay down a universal 

 formula for historical composition, it may never- 

 theless be shewn that conveniently chosen epochs 

 for cross sections, or complete pictures of the total 

 life and existence of each people, ought to be the 

 great divisions of the history ; and that the nar- 

 rative should dart between these, so as to explain 

 upon general laws of progress and change how 

 one came to be transformed into another. The 

 selection of the epochs will be determined by the 

 character of each case ; the number of them will 

 be greatest in the histories where progress has 

 been most rapid, as in the history of Greece ; and 



744 



the period assumed must depend on the time that 

 would best represent a full and average natural 

 existence. Guizot's History of Civilisation in 

 France exemplifies in some degree this choice of 

 epochs for a detailed picture of social existence. 



One of the best examples of the detailed analysis 

 and portraiture of a people at some one epoch is 

 afforded in the first book of Mill's History of 

 British India. The display of the institutions and 

 whole existence of the Hindus in that book will 

 render the scope of the above remarks perfectly 

 intelligible to any one desirous of studying the 

 subject. So little have the Hindus changed 

 within historical periods, that Mr Mill finds one 

 display of their existence to be sufficient ; but in a 

 growing country, the array of social existence 

 would have to be gone over more than once. In 

 England, there are various epochs that could be 

 fixed upon : a Saxon epoch, a Norman epoch, one 

 at the reign of Elizabeth, a Puritan epoch, and 

 one in the early half of the last century, would be 

 essential ; and a considerable amount of explana- 

 tory narration would be requisite to connect each 

 of these with the preceding in the way of causa- 

 tion. 



These remarks refer to the total march of an 

 entire people, and apply only in a small degree to 

 partial histories, such as histories of science, art, 

 commerce, medicine, &c. ; but wherever the stream 

 of events is massive or complicated, the plan of 

 treating it by well-chosen cross delineations is 

 advisable. 



History, from the largeness of its subject, is cap- 

 able of a very wide variety of treatment ; and 

 many successful works have been produced, both 

 in ancient and in modern times, although with 

 very different kinds of merit. It is not a little 

 remarkable that the oldest historical composition 

 of pagan antiquity the work of Herodotus 

 should come up more nearly than almost any pro- 

 duction that could be named to the standard of 

 composition now laid down upon the most advanced 

 scientific considerations that we are able to bring 

 to bear upon the subject. In that great epitome 

 of the ancient world, all the nations known to a 

 Greek inquirer of the fifth century before Christ 

 are pictured forth with vividness and precision, 

 and the classification of details is quite equal to 

 anything employed in the greater number of 

 works of subsequent ages. 



Of recent historical compositions, Mill's British 

 India is the greatest English work, viewed accord- 

 ing to the exposition now given of the proper tissue 

 and structure of history. Guizot's History of 

 Civilisation in France is the most remarkable 

 foreign production on the same model. The 

 History of Greece, by Grote, is allowed to be a 

 work worthy of the greatest people that has yet 

 appeared on the face of the globe. 



Exposition. 



The leading maxims to be observed in the ex- 

 position of the abstract sciences such as mathe- 

 matics, physics, &c. must be ruled by the con- 

 sideration, that each of them contains a series of 

 artificial notions or conceptions that can work 

 themselves into the human brain only by a slow 

 and deliberate process. Hence the strictest order- 

 liness must be observed in arranging their con- 

 stituent ideas, so that each may be presented only 

 after all others necessary for conceiving it have 



