HISTORY. 
the feelings are interested without being 
agitated to a degree inconsistent with plea- 
sure. If then we consider history only as 
a source of elegant amusement, it is an ob- 
ject of no inconsiderable importance, in a 
course of liberal education. 
But this is in fact the lowest commenda- 
tion to which history is entitled. It is 
eminently productive of signal utility. The 
poet has justly remarked that, “ the proper 
study of mankind is man;” and it is the 
office of history to trace the progress of 
man from the savage state, and through the 
intermediate degrees of civilization, to the 
nearest approach to perfection of which 
social institutions are capable. It falls 
within its province to note the effects of 
laws and political regulations, and to record 
the wondrous revolutions which have been 
produced in states by external violence, 
and the no less astonishing changes which 
have been occasioned by the gradual cor- 
ruption of ancient systems of government. 
The record of past transactions, when 
diligently and minutely examined, will pre- 
sent to the politician matter of warning and 
matter of instruction. It will point out the 
sources of the errors of former days, and 
will also lead him to a discernment of the 
means which have crowned with success 
such plans as have been productive of 
benefit to the public. Knowledge which 
it thus gained is obtained at the cheapest 
possible price. Happy are the directors of 
political affairs, who learn in the philosophy 
of history, those lessons which their pre- 
decessors have learnt by the process of 
painful experience. It has been w r ell ob- 
served by Voltaire, that the history of the 
sanguinary Christiern will deter those whose 
influence may happen to sway the .destiny 
of nations, from investing a tyrant with 
absolute power ; and that the disaster of 
Charles XII. before Pultowa affords a les- 
son of admonition to a general not to pene- 
trate without provision into a country like 
the Ukraine ; whilst the powerful and po- 
pular administration of Elizabeth of Eng- 
land, demonstrates the mighty effects of ex- 
tended commerce and prudent (economy. 
In a political point of view the general in- 
fluence of historical knowledge is, indeed, 
of the highest importance, it tends to pre- 
vent the recurrence, and to diminish the 
remaining influence of superstition and re- 
ligions persecution, and of the long train 
of calamities with which those direst ene- 
mies of human happiness are accompanied. 
For who can read the memorials of the 
papal usurpations in the dark ages, and of 
the melancholy consequences by rlhich they 
were followed, without imbibing a spirit 
of tolerance, and a determined disposition 
to discountenance any claims which may 
revive the unjust assumptions of inordinate 
spiritual power. In short, history, whilst 
it details the miseries and misfortunes 
which have upon various occasions befallen 
civilized main, instructs him how those 
miseries and misfortunes may hereafter be 
avoided. 
In a moral point of view history is ex- 
tremely useful, as it points out the issues of 
things, and exhibits as its general result, 
the reprobation consequent upon vice, and 
the glory which awaits virtue. In his days 
of nature, the oppressor may be applauded 
by the venal, whilst he lords it over his 
fellow men, and the wanton destroyer of 
the human race may be hailed as a hero 
by the obsequious or mistaken crowd. 
But when his dust is mingled with that of 
the victims of his cruelty and ambition, 
history summons him to her tribunal : she 
scrutinizes his deeds with impartial strict- 
ness, and passes sentence upon him accord- 
ing to his deserts. The prejudices and 
errors of time present will hereafter be 
done away and corrected by history, which 
redresses the wrongs of the injured, and 
treats with just contempt the insolent 
assumption of the undeserving. Thus, by 
the record of crimes no less than by the 
display of illustrious examples of virtue, 
does history inculcate good principles, and 
enforce upon the reflecting mind a belief in 
a superintending providence. 
The early annals of all countries are con- 
siderably debased by an intermixture of 
fables. In fact the first historians were 
universally poets, whose metaphors, ampli- 
fications, and allegories necessarily observ- 
ed facts, or heightened them beyond the 
standard of probability. To explain their 
legends is the province of the mythologist, 
whose labours, however curious and in- 
teresting to those who have time and incli- 
nation for such pursuits, afford very little 
assistance to the historian. 
But, the mythologic age, being thus con- 
signed to the examination of those whom 
they may concern, however rude may be 
the style of ancient chronicles, or however 
simple and puerile the observations and re- 
flections with which they may be inter- 
spersed, he who wishes to imbibe the true 
spirit of history will diligently peruse them, 
when they become the repositories of facts. 
