XV11 



lieved, all real conception of mediaeval and modern history depended. 

 The insight which led him to grasp this important theory, the " great 

 key of mediaeval history," and trace its influence upon the general 

 system of human affairs, has entitled him, in the language of one of 

 his reviewers, to a place in the very highest rank of historical in- 

 quirers. 



He held an opinion of his own upon that vexed question of our 

 history, the position assumed by William and his Normans towards 

 conquered England. He convinced himself that the idea, upon 

 which Thierry laid such stress, of a bitter war of race against race 

 being waged against the Anglo-Saxons, was greatly overcharged. To 

 him it seemed that the remarkable fact in English history is the 

 practical union of interests, that the continuity of English national 

 life was never broken by the Normans : hence the vigorous and un- 

 interrupted progress of national power. The lessons, however, from 

 past times which he sought to enforce were not exclusively historical. 



Political economy was a study of great interest to him. But he 

 never missed an opportunity of pointing out a source of error which, 

 in his opinion, pervaded the whole school the "considering the 

 science of political economy as being entirely subject to calculation, 

 wholly a matter of figures ; whereas in fact the " wealth of nations," 

 even in the narrowest sense of the term, is quite as much rated by 

 passion and imagination, the imponderable elements which evaporate 

 during the analysis, and leave no residuum in the crucible." 



Imbued with reverence and deeply stored with the learning of the 

 past, he shrank from that tendency, perhaps more general thirty 

 years ago than now, to contrast triumphantly the progress of modern 

 science with mediaeval credulity. He inclined the rather to regret 

 the wisdom that still lingered than to boast of the knowledge that 

 had come. That appeal to " civilization," so common with French 

 historians, as the highest standard of human perfection, was specially 

 distasteful to him. On the contrary, he maintained that all the 

 elements which are really beneficial in nationality are directly at 

 variance with the French idea of civilization that with national 

 language, national institutions, and national religion it cannot amal- 

 gamate. 



Art was a subject to which he gave but casual attention ; yet^in 

 this his appreciation of what is real, and of true taste, gave him an 



VOL. xii, b 



