The Philosophy of History. ■ ' 19 



they made barbarian Christendom acquainted with the civilization 

 of Islam, and gave life to the germs of modern freedom in the 

 free cities of Europe. And the wearisome and seemingly sense- 

 less wars of modern Europe to preserve "the balance of power," 

 have helped to nourish that competition of nations in the arts of 

 peace as well as war, which forms our best guarantee for a con- 

 stant progress of civilizatioD. 



The influence of great men, too, should not be forgotten. That 

 influence is often overrated. Of the heroes of history, many are 

 sham heroes, followers, not leaders, who have made a great noise 

 in the world, but have not perceptibly changed the course of his- 

 tory ; and every great man must be in great degree the repre- 

 sentative of his age, and know how to follow in order that he 

 may lead. Yet, after every allowance has been made, there are 

 certain great men, who have led their times and who have really 

 made history. Such men as Cromwell, Eichelieu, Pitt, Napoleon, 

 Bismark, have made the history of modern Europe read in quite 

 a different way, from that in which it would have read had they 

 not helped to make it. 



But above all these second causes, stands the first great cause 

 of all history. If we believe that there is a Grod, we must believe 

 that he has a plan in his government of the world. And if we 

 believe this, history to us ceases to be the result of the conflict of 

 blind physical forces, or the record of trials of strength between 

 contending ideas. A regular purpose is seen to run through the 

 providences of history. Some great idea is being unfolded in 

 scene after scene of the great drama we are playing God's re- 

 demptive government of the world, is seen in the political sphere 

 in the progress of liberty ; in the social sphere in the progress of 

 civilization ; in the scientific sphere in the progress of knowledge, 

 and in the religious sphere in the progress of Christianity. 



To understand history then we must recognize the reign of law 

 there — physical laws, that set the limit of climate and soil and 

 commerce, and thus limit the habits of man, and so modify his 

 character — physiological laws that keep up race peculiarities and 

 thus produce and limit habits and through habits character — 

 psychological laws that raise man above the level of the brute by 



