PREF. PHILOSOPHY VERSUS HISTORY m 



to rouse up war in every corner of the world. 

 He could, it was plain, endure to be without a 

 country, but not without a foe. 



How much better is it to inquire what ought to 7 

 be done than what has been done, and to teach 

 those who have entrusted their state to fortune that 

 nothing she gives is stable, but that all her gifts are 

 more fickle than the very air ! For she cannot rest, 

 her delight is to match sadness with joy, and to 

 mingle smiles with tears. Therefore in the day of 

 prosperity let no man exult, in the day of adversity 

 let no man faint : the successions of fortune alter- 

 nate. Why should you boast yourself ? The wave 8 

 meantime bears you aloft on its crest ; but where it 

 may strand you, you cannot tell. Its end will be 

 of its own choice, not of yours. Or why, again, do 

 you despond? You have been carried down to 

 the nadir ; now is the chance of rising again. 

 Adversity alters for the better, success for the worse. 

 Changes of the kind must be anticipated, not merely 

 in private families, which are affected by a slight 

 cause, but also in sovereign houses. Dynasties 

 rising from the gutter have ere now established 

 themselves above the ruling powers, while ancient 9 

 empires have fallen when in the very heyday of 

 their power. The number cannot be reckoned of 

 the kingdoms that have been overthrown by other 

 kingdoms. God now makes it His special aim to 

 exalt some and to overthrow others ; nor does He 

 let them gently down, but dashes them from their 

 pinnacle, so that no remnant of them is left. A 

 great sight it is ; we think it so only because we 

 are ourselves small. There are many departments 10 

 in which the standard is not derived from the actual 

 size of the objects, but from our own littleness. 



