Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-01-31

what Mr.. Sharon Turner believed on certain obscure
points In our early AngoSaxon history Mr.. John Kem-
BILE Butler wholly denies Between these contending
parties of which believes all and the other rejects all
there is ase ieu upon which prefer to stand avoid
ing, according to the Horatan precep uram the
hand and etraism the other
g Est nodus in rebus," &c.
The yeracity of the medieval hstorogaphers has been
especially mpugned by the modern historical Pyrrhos
and their childish credulity has been most
ry exaggerated The marvellous events which they
SO fond of relating have thrown the historical critics into
skeptcism that rejects what is morally probable
and which it is rational to believe than to doubt
Sir James Stephen has emancipated himself from this in
discriminate remuneration Of all the statements found in
such books Egnhards life of Charemagne the chroni
Gle Of St Denys and the legends of old Tupn while
the Romance of Lancelot the Costa of William the Short
nosed and the poem of Orlando Furioso furnish their
contingent to the facts and coorng Of
his narrative. To Sir James the lives and legends of
the saints unanimously compiled by the Benedctnes
and Boandiss, have their deep significance and indeed,
do not the varying phases assumed by the novel literature
of later times express the very cage and body Of the
in which they had their birth And thus the eo-
quent lecturer observes these stories embelished with
wondrous accounts Of Visions ecstaces angelic ystants
Of EARTH groesque Miracles and sanity relics of most
Escuapan power to heal, attest at least that their
authors were living sat period when the ideal Of
human existence, the very poetry of fe consisted in
meek suffering in patient endurance, in pouring oil in
to the bleeding wounds of grooming world, and in
escaping from its prevalent bondage and oppression
its cruelty and lust into communion with than fe
male tenderness and more than angelic purity 1t would
be great mistake to suppose that the authors Of these
A.
literally and actually They were the ideal types of
their times. Greek priest Of the ninth tenth century
by Metaphrastus, has left treatise the cart of
Writing Holy Romances," just in day the compo
son of novel has become of the sciences and
is regulated by laws almost fixed the making of
tart in the times of our grandmothers.
Surprising that the student of history is willing to in
the inevitable and useful moral probation involved in
the search for truth the next inquiry arises how shall
this study be prosecuted 1t is with didence that we
answer question which, like this the doctors are at
variance among themselves but to the most available
method first to seek comprehensive knowledge Of
history in its history, the Germans
call and afterwards to descend into closer and minu
ter examination of the leading national histories to which
socially and politically related attempting
however to crowd into the confines of few months or
years the work of lifetime We should study his
tory much as we study geographyfrs the globe, in
its great continental divisions and next the atlas with
its portrature of separate empires kingdoms and
again, planter would cultivate large estate first
surveying its general boundaries and then selecting its
most productive portions without perhaps laying the
whole under actual tlage.
On the of history we need not descan There is
trite apophthegm commonly attributed to Lord Boiling
broke though by him quoted presume from Dionysus
teaching by example, that is history personfes and
carnaes those political and moral truths which would else
be cold and comforess distractions Two lessons at least
taught by history quote the words of another
one is that not in ourselves originally superior
our fathers the other, that shameully and mon
srously inferior to them, if do advance beyond
them And if here again met with the cavilling
objection that history aacous in its teachings because
fictitious in many of its statements win argument grad
admit the premise but deny the inference nay more we
venture to that if all history fiction it would
still possess infinite value being the familiar simude
that conveys under the guse Of actuay important truths
History is in fact, most important study ground
independent of its essential verify for if be phloso
ply teaching by example, its lessons Of wisdom are de-
rivable from those examples whether actually only sup
posousy just practical arithmetic where the
philosophy of quantities taught by examples which il
lustrate and involve the theoretical rule not necess
r that the precise examples employed should be only such
have actually occurred in the counting and the
grocery it is not the verify but the versimtude
Of the problems that is Indispensable and in history
the great truths of morals and politics illustrated by
its embodimentsby its ineligible forms and fair
humanities though they imaginary than
real Authenticity and genuineness indeed essential
but waem5Iance is equally Important and when history
is considered merely with reference to its practical
apart from the native beauty and majesty of for
qualities become chiefly valuable because they
likely to the latter. We sensible of the made
quacy with which have developed this idea but for
of time and space must leave it in its badness to
be apprehended by the intelligence of readers To
minds there is great comfort in this historical optimism
which enables to cunnngy dstil the soul of good
ness in things which evil" only because not
absolutely true The great unsetng stars Of the moral
and political armament may still guide devious way;
though conceptions concerning them like the vulgar
notions of astronomy founded upon their apparent
rather than actually subsistng phenomena.
The great question whether there is such thing the
science of history cannot be adequately answered in
hasy paragraph and therefore dismiss the subject in
order hold il in for future consideration sensi
BILE that have already trespassed long the pa
thence of our readers
ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. Roderck Murchson states
in communication to the London Mercantile Gazette
that Lieut.. PIN has met with but little encouragement