DEPARTMENTS OF EXPRESSION — HISTORY. In history a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials for future wisdom from the errors and infirmities of mankind.-BURKE. History, at least in its state of ideal perfection, is a compound of poetry and philosophy. It impresses general truths on the mind by a vivid representation of particular characters and incidents.-MACAULAY. Its HE rendering of facts under the relation of place is, as we have seen, description; under the relation of time, narrative. History rests chiefly on the latter. method is developed by successive stages. At first reflecting the prevalent appetite for the marvellous, it was undiscriminating, rejected nothing, mixed fable with truth, recounted omens, prodigies, legends, with the same grave minuteness as events of daily life, worshipped antiquity, began with the creation of Adam, and reached home by filling the chasms with tradition and fancy. Thus in 1483 the pedigree of the London bishops was traced back to the alleged migration of Brutus from Troy, and even to Noah. Geoffrey's History of the Britons, composed in 1147, relates how Brutus, having slain the giants who peopled England, built London; how, during a succeeding government, it rained blood three consecutive days; how the coasts were infested by a horrid sea monster, which, having devoured multitudes, swallowed the reigning king; how a giant more terrible than the others, clothed himself in furs made entirely from the beards of kings he had killed, but fell himself a victim to the prowess of Arthur. The reputation of this work procured for its author a bishopric, and for several centuries but two or three critics ventured to question its accuracy. Others, less comprehensive but equally credulous, would give us a diary of passing experience, a kind of historical almanac, noting in the same lifeless tone the important and the trivial. These are the annalists or chroniclers. Here is their style in the tenth century: 538. When he had reigned four years, the sun was eclipsed from the first hour of the day to the third. 540. Again, two years after, the sun was eclipsed for half an hour after the third hour, so that the stars were everywhere visible in the sky. 661. After three years, Kenwalk again fought a battle near the town of Pontesbury, and took prisoner Wulfhere, son of Penda, at Ashtown, when he had defeated his army. 671. After one year more, there was a great pestilence among the birds, so that there was an intolerable stench by sea and land, arising from the carcasses of birds both small and great. 674. After one year, Wulfhere, son of Penda, and Kenwalk fought a battle among themselves in a place called Bedwin. 677. After three years a comet was seen. 729. At the end of one year a comet appeared, and the holy bishop Egbert died. 733. Two years after these things, king Ethelbald received under his dominion the royal vill which is called Somerton. The same year the sun was eclipsed. 734. After the lapse of one year, the moon appeared as if stained with spots of blood, and by the same omen Tatwine and Bede departed this life. In the sixteenth century there is a like uncritical habit, with a similar readiness of belief. The narrator, as usual, begins with Paradise, and continues to the date of publication. Holinshed, the most complete of chroniclers, vouches for the arrival of Ulysses in Britain, and speaks of a bloody rain, the red drops falling on the sheets which had been hanged to dry.' Of history, that reproduces the unity and drift of events by the motion and chain of ideas, exhibiting the orderly progress of society and the nature of man, Raleigh's History of the World (1641), though full of that sort of learning which now provokes only an incredulous smile, may be said to signalize the beginning. Under the shaping genius of Hume, Gibbon, and Macaulay, history became more exact and organic, as well as more humane and democratic. The fortunes of princes and the issues of campaigns became of less moment than a knowledge of how the people actually lived - the external picture of objects and the internal picture of soul the summing up of facts in general ideas for the guidance of the legislator, the political economist, and the student of human destiny. The present age discloses, with more or less distinctness, three schools of historians the imaginative or romantic, which makes the most lavish effort to resuscitate the past, to depict it vividly, dramatically; the realistic, which, simpler and severer, aims to exhibit men and things merely as they were; and the philosophic, which, using particulars for generalization, seeks to show that historical phenomena have a system and a sequence, determined by natural laws. To the first belong the sinister and furious Carlyle,' the more popular and paradoxical Froude;* to the second, the calm and scholarly Freeman,' the spirited and artistic Green; to the third, the learned and ambitious Buckle, the careful and comprehensive Lecky." From all this, it appears that history is to be considered 1 Cromwell. The French Revolution. 2 England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. 3 The Norman Conquest. Conquest of the Saracens. Federal Government. Old English History. 4 A Short History of the English People. The Making of England. 5 Civilization in England. 6 Rationalism. European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne. England in the Eighteenth Century. under two aspects, the scientific and the poetic. Under the first, commencing with the environment, it delineates the industrial, political, domestic, social, moral, religious, literary, and æsthetic existence; observing the chronological order subordinately, the logical principally; displaying events in their causal connection and dependence; setting forth by iteration, example, and illustration, general views concerning men, nations, institutions, and movements of parties, judge as well as witness, distributing praise and blame; addressing itself to the higher emotions not less than to the understanding. Says Froude, alluding to its vocation: The history of this, as of all nations (or so much of it as there is occasion for any of us to know), is the history of the battles which it has fought and won with evil; not with political evil merely, or spiritual evil; but with all manifestations whatsoever of the devil's power. . . ... We learn in it to sympathize with what is great and good; we learn to hate what is base. In the anomalies of fortune we feel the mystery of our mortal existence; and in the companionship of the illustrious natures who have shaped the fortunes of the world, we escape from the littlenesses which cling to the round of common life, and our minds are tuned in a higher and nobler key. Under the second, it is constructed with a view to local color, dramatic situations, effective contrasts; and is marked by a stirring, elevated diction. Thus has the reader the pleasure of foreseeing somewhat of the sequel without confusion; he observes always one event rising out of another, and longs to see the winding up of the whole, which is artfully concealed from him, to hasten him on to it with the greater impatience. When he has perused the whole history, he looks back like a curious traveler, who, having got to the top of a mountain, observes all around him, and takes a delight in viewing from this situation the way he came and all the pleasant 1 places through which he passed.' The historian's qualifications may be summed up in the words of Bayle: 'His learning should be greater than his genius, and his judgment stronger than his imagination. In private life he should have the character of being free from party; and his former writings ought always to have shown the sincerest attachment to truth. I ask several questions: who the historian is? of what country? of what principles? For it is impossible but that his private opinions will almost involuntarily work themselves into his public performances. His style, also, should be clear, elegant, and nervous.' Evidently, much of what has been said is applicable to that branch of history which deals with the characters and important events in the lives of individuals — biography. 'A Biography professes to give the experience of a life, and may therefore bring to view and illustrate important truths respecting man's physical and mental nature. The examples presented to us in the lives of prominent men and women may have various bearings. They may instruct us how to preserve health (see, for instance, George Combe's Life of Andrew Combe), to attain knowledge and culture (the Lives of Philosophers, Scholars, Poets, etc.), to play a part in public affairs, to prosper in business, to regulate our families, or to do good in our generation. Most commonly, Biography gratifies our interest in some distinguished person, and is the more acceptable, the more it is invested with the colors and touches of poetry.' Othello's request before his suicide is the just rule of the biographer: I pray you, in your letters, When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, Nor set down aught in malice. 1 Fénélon. |