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HISTORY. 



GIBBON describes History as ' little more than the 

 register of the crimes, follies, and vices of mankind,' 

 and recording, as he does, the history of twelve dark 

 centuries, he might well arrive at this conclusion. But 

 its truth is not limited to any particular period or por- 

 tion of the inhabited world. Take a century from any 

 recorded time, of any country or race of men from 

 the Egyptian, Jewish, Assyrian, Greek or Eoman history, 

 from the dark ages, middle ages, or the last 100 years 

 of our own age it is everywhere the same continuous 

 relation of wars, of national or personal struggles for 

 territory or political power. Sydney Smith, with his 

 wonted force of familiar illustration, calculates that 

 since the Peace of Utrecht thirty-five minutes out of 

 every hour have been passed in war. I have myself 

 made a rude reckoning on the subject, drawn from the 

 printed pages both of ancient and modern history 

 from the Greek, Latin, and Byzantine historians, as 

 well as those of England, France, Italy, and Germany, 

 in later times. The result is somewhat varied by the 

 temper and style of the particular historian ; but taking 

 an average of the whole, it shows that two-thirds of 

 the world's written history during 2,500 years, under 

 every form of government, religion, and civilisation, is 



