Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1852-02-28


events is, in due time, to he framed The
transactions of public bodies, local histories,
memoirs of all kinds, statistics, laws, ordinan-
ees, public debates and discussions, works ofpe-
riodical literature, and the public journals,
whether of political events, OF commerce, lite
nature, or the arts, all find their places in the
collections of Historical Societies. But these
collections are not history, they are only ele
ments for history. History is higher name,
and imports literary productions of the first or
der.
1t is presumptuous in me, whose abors and
studies have been so long devoted to other OBJ
Jects, to speak in the presence OF those whom /
see before me of the dignity and Importance OF
History, IN its just sense; and yet find pleasure
in breaking in upon the course of daily pur-
suits, and indulging, for time, reflections upon
topics ofliterature, and in the remembrance of
the great examples of Historic art. Well
written History must always be the result of
genius and taste, as well as of attain
ment. 1t stands next to Epic poetry, in the
productions of the human mind. If it requires
less of invention than that, it is not behind it in
dignity and importance. The power of the
Epic consists in the narrative of real or supposed
events, and the representation of real, or at
least natural, characters; and History, in its
noblest examples is an account of occurrences
In which great events are commenorated, and
distinguished men appear, as agents and &C
tors. Epic poetry and the drama are but
ratives, the former partly and the latter wholly
in the form of dialogues; but their haracters
and personages are usually the creations of the
Imagination.
Severe History sometimes assumes the dia-
logue or dramatic form, and, without departing
from truth, is embellished by supposed COLO
quies or speeches, as in the production of that
great master, Titus Livius, Or that greater mas
ter still, Thucydides.
The drawing of characters, consistent with
general truth and fidelity, is no violation of his
torical accuracy: it is only an illustration of an
orn ament.
When Livy describes an appropriate speech
to one of hi historical personages it is only as
if he had portrayed the same character in Ian
guage protessedly his own. Lord Clarendon's
presentation, in his own words, OF the character
of Lord Falkland, one of the highest and most
successful efforts of personal description, is hard
y different from what it would have been if he
had put into the mouth Of Lord Falkland
speech exhibiting the same qualities Of the mind
and the heart, the same opinions and the same
attachments. Homer describes the actions Of
personages, which, if not real, are so imagined
as to be conform able tothe general characters
tics OF men in the heroic ages If his relation
be not historically true, it is SUCH nevertheless,
as, making due allowance for poetical embellish-
ment might have been true. And in Millions
great Epic, which is so almost entirely made
up of narratives and speeches, there is nothing
repugnant to the general conception which we
form of the characters ofthose whose sentiments
and conduct he portrays
But History, while it illustrates and adorns,
confines itself to facts, and to the narrative of
actual events. It is not far from truth to say,
that well written and classic History is the
Epic OF real life. 1t places the actions OF
men in an attractive and interesting light;
jecting what is improper and superfuous, it
fills its picture with real, just, and well drawn
images.
And the dignity of History consists in reci-
ting events with truth and accuracy, and in pre-
senting human agents and their actions in
clear and impartial light. The first element in
History, therefore, is truthtulness; and this
truthfulness must be presented in a concrete
form. Classical History is not memoir 1t is
not rude collection of acts occurrences and
dates 1t adopts nothing that is not true, but
then it does not embrace all minor truths, and
all minor transactions. It~is composition,
production, which has unity of design, like
work of statuary or of painting, and keeps con-
s.
therefore, are to be properly adjusted, and well
proportional. The historian is an artist as true
to fact as other artists to nature and though
he may sometimes embellish, he never misrep-
resents: he may occasionally, perhaps, color
too highly but the truth is still visible through
the lights and shades. This unity of design
seems essential to all great productions. With
all the variety of the Had, Homer kept the
wrath of Achilles, and its consequences, always
in view; when he sang the exploits of other he
roes, they were silently subordinate to the son
of Thetis. Still more remarkable is the unity in
variety of the Odyssey, the character of which
is much more complicated, but all the parts are
artfully adapted to each other, and they have
common centre ofinterest and action-the great
end being the restoration of Ulysses to his ma
tive Ithica Virgil, in the Eneid, sang ofnothing
but the man and his acts, who brought the Tro-
jan gods to Italy, and laid the foundation of the
imperial walls of Rome and Milton Of nothing
but
"Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
OF that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death intothe world
And the best historical productions of ancient
and of modern times have been written with
equal fidelity to one leading thought or pur-
pose.
1t has been said by Lord Bolingbroke that
'History is Philosophy teaching by examples"
and before Bolingbroke, Shakespeare has said:
"There is history in all mems lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceased:
The which observ'd man may prophesy,
With aim, of the main chance of things,
AS yet not to come to life which in their
Seeds and weak beginnings, lie entreasured.
Such things become the hatch and brood of time;
And, by the necessary form OF this,
King Richard might create perfect guess
That great Northumberland then false to
Him. would of that seed grow to greater falseness
Which should not find ground to rest upon,
Unless you
Are these things then necessities
Then let meet them like necessities
And a wiser man than either Bongbroke or
Shakespeare has declared
'1he thing that hath BEEN tits that which shall be,
and that which is DONE that which shall be done and
there is new thing under the sun"
These sayings are all just, and they proceed
upon the idea that the essential characteristics
of human nature are the same everywhere and
in all ages.
This doubtless is true; and so far as history
presents the qualities and propensities of hui