140 INDOOR STUDIES 



did. Your scientific critic is usually a wearisome 

 creature. We do not so much want history ex- 

 plained after the manner of science as we want it 

 portrayed and interpreted after the manner of liter- 

 ature. And the explanations of these experts is 

 usually only clever thimhle-rigging. If they ferret 

 the mystery out of one hole, they run it to cover in 

 another. How clever, for instance, is Taine's ex- 

 planation of those brilliant epochs in the history of 

 nations when groups of great men are produced, and 

 literatures and arts get founded ! Why, it is only 

 the result of a "hidden concord of creative forces; " 

 and the opposite periods, the periods of sterility, are 

 the result of " inward contrarieties. " Truly, a rose 

 by any other name would smell as sweet. What 

 causes the hidden concord, etc., so that we can lay 

 our hand upon the lever and bring about the splen- 

 did epochs at a given time, the astute Frenchman 

 does not tell us. I like better the explanation 

 of the old Koman, Paterculus, namely, emulation 

 among men; yes, and emulation in Nature herself. 

 One great orator or poet will make others. Or 

 Emerson's suggestion, which is just as near the 

 truth, and much more taking to the imagination : — 

 " Heats or genial periods arrive in history, or, 

 shall we say, plenitudes of Divine Presence, by 

 which high tides are caused in the human spirit, and 

 great virtues and talents appear, as in the eleventh, 

 twelfth, thirteenth, and again in the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries, when the nation (England) 

 was full of genius and piety." 



