with a superstition. . . . These are examples of great magnanimity to be sure, and of magnanimity employed in the most worthy cause. . But if a general should act the same part now, and, in order to secure his victory, get killed as fast as he could, he might pass for an hero, but I am sure he would pass for a madman. There are certain general principles and rules of life and conduct which always must be true, because they are conformable to the invariable nature of things. He who studies history as he would study philosophy, will soon distinguish and collect them, and by doing so will soon form to himself a general system of ethics and politics on the surest foundations, on the trial of these principles and rules in all ages, and on the confirmation of them by universal experience. I said he will distinguish them; for once more I must say that, as to particular modes of actions and measures of conduct, which the customs of different countries, the manners of different ages, and the circumstances of different conjunctures, have appropriated, as it were, it is always ridiculous, or imprudent and dangerous, to employ them. But this is not all. By contemplating the vast variety of particular characters and events; by examining the strange combinations of causes, different, remote, and seemingly opposite, that often concur in producing one effect; and the surprising fertility of one single and uniform cause in the producing of a multitude of effects as different, as remote, and seemingly as opposite; by tracing carefully, as carefully as if the subject he considers were of personal and immediate concern to him, all the minute and sometimes scarce perceivable circumstances, either in the characters of actors, or in the course of actions, that history enables him to trace, and according to which the success of affairs, even the greatest, is mostly determined; by these, and such methods as these, for I might descend into a much greater detail, a man of parts may improve the study of history to its proper and principal use; he may sharpen the penetration, fix the attention of his mind, and strengthen his judgment; he may acquire the faculty and the habit of discerning quicker, and looking farther; and of exerting that flexibility and steadiness which are necessary to be joined in the conduct of all affairs that depend on the concurrence or opposition of other men. Mr Locke, I think, recommends the study of geometry even to those who have no design of being geometricians; and he gives a reason for it that may be applied to the present case. Such persons may forget every problem that has been proposed, and every solution that they or others. have given; but the habit of pursuing long trains of ideas will remain with them, and they will pierce through the mazes of sophism and discover a latent truth, where persons who have not this habit will never find it. In this manner the study of history will prepare us for action and observation. History is the ancient author : experience is the modern language. We form our taste on the first; we translate the sense and reason, we transfuse the spirit and force: but we imitate only the particular graces of the original; we imitate them according to the idiom of our own tongue, that is, we substitute often equivalents in the lieu of them, and are far from affecting to copy them servilely. To conclude, as experience is conversant about the present, and the present enables us to guess at the future; so history is conversant about the past, and by knowing the things that have been, we become better able to judge of the things that are. NOTES. Making us wiser. . . better men. In Bolingbroke's view, 'the proper and principal use of the study of his tory' is explained in the extract. History, if rightly studied, must make the student a better man, and 'enable him to promote, like an useful citizen, the security, the peace, the welfare, or the grandeur of the community to which he belongs.' Mere antiquaries and scholars coxcombs and pedants. In enumerating (Letter I.) 'the motives that carry men to the study of history,' Bolingbroke mentions these classes of persons with disdain; their use of history not coinciding with what he considers the proper and principal use' of the study. History is philosophy &c. 'What I have read somewhere or other in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, I think' (Letter II.). If Dionysius does not use the pithy phrase, he certainly often expresses himself to this effect. Boileau (1636-1711), a celebrated French poet. Your lordship. The letters on History Codrus, the last king of Athens. disguise, picked a quarrel, and intentionally got himself slain; the oracle having promised victory to the side whose king should first fall. The mythical date is 1068 B.C. Decii. Publius Decius Mūs was Roman consul, 340 B.C. In the great Latin war, both he and the other consul one night had a vision announcing that the general on the one side and the army on the other were devoted to death. Next morning, according to mutual agreement, that the one whose men should first waver should devote himself and the enemy to destruction, Decius plunged into the hottest of the fight and was slain. His son, of the same name, in his fourth consulship, devoted himself in like manner in a battle with the Gauls. Mr Locke. John Locke (1632-1704), a celebrated English philosopher. Sophism, argument that looks sound, but is not; a fallacy. In the long-run, from Gr. sophos (wise, clever). Idiom, a phrase or form of speech peculiar to a language. Gr. idioma, from idios (one's own, belonging exclusively to one's self). JAMES THOMSON.-1700-1748. JAMES THOMSON, the son of a parish minister in the south of Scotland, was educated at Jedburgh and at Edinburgh with a view to his father's profession. His father dying, and theology proving uncongenial, Thomson went up to London (1725), where he experienced not a little difficulty in making ends meet. In 1730-1 he travelled on the Continent with a son of Sir Charles Talbot, Solicitor-general. Sir Charles soon became Lord Chancellor (1733), and from him Thomson obtained a post in the Court of Chancery (1734?-7). From the Prince of Wales he received a pension of £100 a year; and the Surveyorgeneralship of the Leeward Islands (1744), after payment of a deputy, yielded him about £300 a year. He spent his latter years in retirement at Richmond (1736-48). Thomson's chief work is The Seasons. Winter was written first, and published in 1726; Summer appeared in 1727; Spring in 1728; and Autumn, when the completed work was issued, in 1730. Liberty, a poem, was given to the public, after two years' labour, in 1735 and 1736. The Castle of Indolence (1746), his most polished work, is on the model of Spenser of The Faery Queen it is the most perfect imitation, without servility, ever made.' He wrote also several dramatic pieces. SHOWERS IN SPRING. (From The Seasons:-Spring.) The north-east spends his rage; he now shut up Warms the wide air, and o'er the void of heaven 145 150 The wish of nature. Gradual sinks the breeze 155 Into a perfect calm; that not a breath Is heard to quiver through the closing woods, 160 165 The promised sweetness. Man superior walks 170 Amid the glad creation, musing praise, And looking lively gratitude. At last, The clouds consign their treasures to the fields; And, softly shaking on the dimpled pool 175 But who can hold the shade, while heaven descends 180 And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap? Swift fancy fired anticipates their growth ; NOTES. struction. 156 That = so that. 185 Cf. Winter, 'The plumy race, 144. Iron cave. Cf. Milton, Par. Thomson is very fond of the conReg., iv. 414, and note.-Effusive, lit. pouring forth; Lat. ef(by assimilation, for ex, out), fusum (to pour), and the active termination -ive. Thomson is particularly fond of this formation: cf. ' delusive '(160), 'prelusive' (175), 'responsive' (201), 'amusive' (216), &c. The tenants of the sky.' -'Plumy,' feathery, feathered; Lat. pluma (feather).-' People:' Thomson very often speaks of animalsbirds, cattle, sheep, fishes, insectsand even of flowers, as peoples, races, nations, &c. This is a Bible usage. Cf. Prov. xxx. 25-6; Joel, ii. 5, &c. 181-2. Shedding herbs, flowers. Highly figurative; cf. the falling verdure' (164). The literal statement may be gathered from 183-5. 183. An earlier form of the verse (ed. 1738) was: 'Imagination fired prevents their growth.' For 'prevents,' cf. note, page 144. Resolve the numerous condensations, giving the simple expression in full.-Describe in prose. THE LAND OF INDOLENCE. (From The Castle of Indolence, Canto i.) 2. In lowly dale, fast by a river's side, With woody hill o'er hill encompassed round, Than whom a fiend more fell is nowhere found. |