Historical societies are auxiliary to historical compositions.
They collect the materials from which the great narrative of events is, in due time, to be framed. The transactions of public bodies, local histories, memoirs of all kinds, statistics, laws ordinances, public debates and discussions, works of periodical literature, and the public journals, whether of political events, or commerce, literature, or the arts, all find their places in the collections of historical societies. History is a higher name, and imports literary productions of the first order. Well written history must always be the result of genius and taste, as well as of research and study. It stands next topic poetry, among the productions of the human mind.