24 ART. II.-Lectures on Modern History. By WILLIAM SMYTH, Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge. 2 vols. London: Pickering. 1841. 2. The Natural History of Society. By W. C. TAYLOR, LL.D. 2 vols. London: How and Parsons. 1841. POPE, in his "Temple of Fame," places at each gate the "sage historians," clothed in white garments : "Graved o'er their seats the form of Time was found, But the historians stand at the gate to very little purpose, if they do not distinguish between the different claimants for admission. History has been too frequently only a graver form of panegyric. If the glories of history be radiant to persuade, the terrors of history should also be mighty to alarm. If it has the laurel to crown, it should also possess the scourge to punish. If its Paradise be full of music, and light, and joy; its darker region of suffering should have its horrors of blackness and of shame. History ought to contain two temples-one of glory, the other of contempt. Decorate the portal of the first with all the luxury of fancy; but over the gates of the second, write the terrible inscription of Dante. Let the blood-thirsty warrior, the abandoned courtier, the hypocritical statesman, learn that they are to leave all hope behind them, when they enter into the solemn precincts of history. There the judge waits to question and to sentence them : "Quæsitor Minos urnam movet; ille silentum But History has not performed her full office, though she may have bound the garland on the brow of valour and patriotism, or lashed the blood out of the writhing favourites of vice. She has still one more duty to discharge. To her belongs the peculiar privilege of leading into public notice the silent train of suffering virtue; to wipe away the tears of persecuted innocence; and to scatter the sweetest flowers of her garden upon the graves of the unfortunate and the good. These are histories which she may record, with a glow of happiness upon her cheek. History should preach to the world from the sepulchre of virtue; for who cannot exclaim, in the touching lines of Rogers— "When by a good man's grave I muse alone, Like those of old, on that thrice hallow'd night, And with a voice, inspiring joy, not fear, Say, pointing upward, Know! he is not here!'" The views entertained by Professor Smyth, both of the objects and the treatment of history, are developed with great precision, and with much elegance and animation, in his introductory lecture. In sitting down to prepare himself for the discharge of his important and honourable duties, three successive schemes for lectures on modern history appear to have presented themselves to him. The first was very splendid and imposing. Perceiving that detail was obviously impossible in it, he resolved upon the exclusion of all "more particular and local history;" delineations of character, pictures of remarkable events, outlines of surprising revolutions, were to be left out of the plan, except so far as they related to the general interests of mankind. Nations were to be contemplated only in their struggles and intercourse with other countries; the mouldering desolation of one city was to be gazed upon only, as it were, by the rising glory of another; and the student was to pass through the tumult and savage exultation of barbarism, into the beauty, the lustre, and the refinement of civilization. "A summary, an estimate of human nature as it had shown itself since the fall of the Roman empire, on the great theatre of the civilized part of the world, was, if possible, to be given." Maturer deliberation displayed the difficulties and the perils of this undertaking. The eye of the historic traveller might well grow weary and dim with gazing upon that vast and distant horizon. However patient he might be of thirst, however courageous in combating the perils and toils of the journey, nature would at length faint and yield. A dreary wilderness is to be traversed before the historian can reach the green and fertile country, or refresh his tired spirit with the cultivated scenery of civilized life. Professor Smyth started back at the magnificence of his own outline. He had, indeed, an illustrious example before him of one great and mighty genius, who, urged forward by an inexhaustible spirit of enterprize, and lighted along the dark paths of enquiry by the torch of a most radiant wisdom, yet ventured not to undertake so vast and mysterious a voyage of discovery. The great Lord Bacon, is the observation of Smyth, "did not find himself unworthily employed, when he was considering the existing situation, and contemplating the future advancement of human learning; but to look back upon the world, and to consider the different movements of different nations, whether retrograde or in advance, and to state the progress of the whole, from time to time, as resulting from the combined effect and failures of all the parts: to attempt this, is to attempt more than was effected even by the enterprizing mind of Bacon; for it is to appreciate the facts, as well as to exhibit the theory of human society-to weigh in the balance the conduct as well as the intelligence of mankind-and to extend to the religion, legislation, and policy of states, and to the infinitely diversified subject of their political happiness, the same enquiry, criticism, and speculation, which the wisest and brightest of mankind had been content to extend only to the more particular theme of human knowledge." The Professor acted wisely in thus withdrawing from his proposed enterprize. Diligence and accuracy were considered by Gibbon to be the only merits which an historical writer may ascribe to himself. But a critic of history would require more expansive powers, a keener vision, and a hardier frame. This scheme, therefore, having been relinquished by the Professor, the next that occurred to him was to select particular periods of history, and to present a review and an estimate of them in a connected series of discourses. The dark ages, the revival of learning, the Reformation, the religious wars, the victories of Louis XIV., are all striking texts for such historical disquisitions. The advantages of the scheme were not concealed from the Professor: he perceived that these epochs of gloom, of terror, of glory, or of ambition, could not be spoken of without reference to "the general meaning and importance of modern history." In describing particular and isolated periods, it would be difficult to avoid an occasional deviation into events which are either nearly or remotely associated with them. In walking through these paths of history, with the lamp in our hands, it is impossible but that some rays should lighten the mist on our right hand and on our left. Thus, while pursuing only one track, we might insensibly become acquainted with the characteristic features of the country. This plan was adopted by Vertot in his "Revolutions," and by Voltaire in his "Age of Louis XIV.;" and though Warburton and Hurd pronounced it wrong and absurd, it has been employed by Schlegel, and carried out in political and literary history with remarkable fluency and power. After some deliberation, the Professor deemed it prudent to reject the second scheme also; chiefly, as he informs us, because to attempt it would be rather to attempt to write a book than to give lectures. His third and final scheme was simpler, and certainly more practicable; it consisted in the honest endeavour to assist his hearers in reading history for themselves. We think that Professor Smyth's determination was a wise and conscien tious one. It showed that the moral and intellectual benefit and improvement of his youthful audience had engaged his anxiety and interest. For it ought to be remembered, that while he narrowed the site of that structure which he proposed to erect, he also deprived himself of many opportunities of displaying his imagination, his wit, and his eloquence. Instead of writing his own inscriptions upon the temple of history, he seeks to explain the writing of others; instead of enshrining his own statues of silver and gold within those embellished walls, he conducts the student to the statues which are already placed there. He is content to be a guide, when he might have been an architect. But to return. Having chosen his plan, the Professor proceeds to give some brief directions with a view to its successful application and reception; and the following caution is so ingenious, so important, and so happily illustrated, that we shall quote it in the writer's own words: "The first advice, then, which I shall take upon me to give, as the result of my experience, is this-not to read general histories, and abridgments of history, as a more summary method of acquiring historical knowledge. There is no summary method of acquiring knowledge. Abridgments of history have their use, but this is not their use, nor can be. When the detail is tolerably known, the summary can then be understood, but not before. Summaries may always serve, most usefully, to revive the knowledge that has been before acquired; may throw it into proper shapes and proportions, and leave it in this state upon the memory to supply the materials of subsequent reflection. But general histories, if they are read first, and before the particular history is known, are a sort of chain of which the links seem not connected; certain representations and statements, which cannot be understood, and therefore cannot be remembered, and exhibit to the mind a succession of objects and images, each of which appears and retires too rapidly to be surveyed; and when the whole vision has passed by, as soon it does, a trace of it is scarcely found to remain. Were I to look from an eminence over a country which I had never before seen, I should discover only the principal objectsthe villa, the stream, the lawn, or the wood. But if the land before me had been the scene of my childhood, or lately of my residence, every object would bring along with it all its attendant associations, and the picture that was presented to the eye would be the least part of the impression that was received by the mind. Such is the difference between reading general histories before or after the particular histories to which they refer." (t. i. p. 6.) From the necessity of reading history, the Professor turns to the pleasures and benefits of reading it. In a passage of history he discovers some of the machinery of fictitious story: it has incidents, adventures, heroes, and catastrophes; and it has these qualities of romance in a very vivid manner. That truth is stranger than fiction, has become a proverb. Has not the narrative of Herodotus all the charms of a novel? And yet the records of every traveller continue day by day to attest and confirm his relations. The beautiful page of Livy is coloured by fable; yet in that exquisite mirror of elegant diction, the features of truth are indistinctly reflected; and this partial shadow of her image is, perhaps, all that we may hope to obtain. The remark of Sir Robert Walpole, in his retirement, is sufficiently famous : "Do not read history to me, for that, I know, must be false." Upon this saying, Professor Smyth observes, "that history, if written at the time, cannot be depended upon in every particular; and that the lapse of some years is necessary in order to contemplate any event with serenity and justice." But the meaning of Walpole might have been this-that the history which professed to unfold the actions of a statesman must be false, since the motives of those actions were concealed from public observation. The advocate of the poor may have a heart of stone; the most generous exploit may be only the calculation of avarice. When history professes to expose the inner man, she cannot escape a deviation into falsehood. But the most interesting aspect under which the study of history presents itself to our eyes, is as the school of experience. We wish to unravel the intricacies of Greek or of Latin policy; to dig down into the ancient soil for those fibres of fertile vigour and life, which gradually rose unto such beauty and strength, and covered the world with the immensity of their shade. We long to behold the merchant vessels crowding into the port of Tyre; to accompany the Roman armies through their resplendent victories in the east; to follow the Barbarians over the trampled harvests of the south, in their irruptions of carnage and terror. 66 The sage historic muse The view, which Thompson takes, is not only poetical, but just-it ought to be the text of every history. If biography is history, teaching by the example of one; history is also biography, teaching by the example of many. The triumph and the utility of all lectures, Professor Smyth very properly makes to consist in exciting the hearer to become |