Report on General Literature. 



89 



ble knowledge of the histories of England and France, with 

 a suitable running commentary of connection with the 

 days of Greece and Rome. But what human brain could 

 ever hope to master the history of nearly two thousand 

 years, if created with the profusion of incident that has 

 marked the past decade ? It is therefore, almost an in- 

 stinct of what will soon become necessary, which impels 

 the popular mind more and more to demand principles 

 rather than mere dry detail of facts ; to ask that questions 

 relating to material force should be put aside as much as 

 possible, and that in place of them, by comparison of lan- 

 guage and races, and by examination of the method and 

 results of past statesmanship, an acquaintance may be 

 formed with that inner soul of nationalities, which influ- 

 ences their destinies and enables them, in some degree, to 

 become far-seeing and provident as to their future. 



There are those who fondly look forward to some coming 

 era in which wars shall cease, and all the world be in 

 brotherhood and unity. The wish is probably father to 

 the thought, and the whole idea chimerical. But if it 

 ever should happen that the world abjures the sword, it 

 may be partially because, from the philosophic 'labors of 

 the historian cultivating his field of thought upon this 

 newer and more enlarged principle, ideas of more practical 

 value than ever known before, will be evolved, throwing 

 into obscurity, as mere accessories, the now much sought 

 for honors of war, and thus taking away half the excite- 

 ment to military glory; teaching that statecraft is the 

 true career, and the labors of the statesman to be applauded 

 above those of the conqueror ; and, by a proper compa- 

 rison of nations with each other, giving increased currency 

 to a systematic study of those customs and aspirations 

 which will most surely lead to national permanence and 

 prosperity. 



[Trans, vii.'] 12 



