The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-06-16

We find the following communication under
the above head in the last number of the New
York Literary World:

We find the following communication under
the above head in the last number of the New
York Literary World;
Louis Napoleon has prescribed the study Of
history from the French schools, and he is right.
| History is nourishing science. Mathematics
and logic clear the intellect Natural sciences
expand and incidentally elevate the mind the
study CT the ancient languages eulIivates, chast
ems and invigorates thought and expression but
history nurses the soul: ii yields puellum tit
for bringing up men and rearing citizens, party
feelings associations, and passions often serI-
ousy sway our opinions of men, events aud
measures of the time, and may make US forget
that there IL a running justice through all that
happens which brings matters 10 their deserved
end and awards but there are very few minds
so vicious that they do not gladly seize upon
virtue and greatness recorded in history, and
unconueeted with our personal interests. Why
else should even the worst tyraDts feel fiattered
when they are compared to the best men in
history? Louis Napoleon himself would not
willingly compare himself to Doctor Franea,
whatever others may feel inclined to do.
History accustoms the mind to perceive the
continuity of States, societies and mankind. and
more than any other knowledge inspires the
soul with the conviction that the present is not
all, but that we belong also to the past and the
future. IL is this that forms the strengthening
element in the study of history. Let people
live but for the dav-letthem worship the words
on the tomb of Sardanapaus eat. drink and
lust the rest is nothing and the despot need
not fear their molestation. Bat if citizens are
wanted, and not fast livers. if freemen are 10
support and continue good institutions, and if
a fair institutional liberty is to be supported,
to be enjoyed, and to be handed over to sue
ceedng generations, history must be largely
infused into every plan OF education. 1t has
more nutriment than any other branch Free
nations produce the great historians. and in
turn, history helps rearing free nations. II
feeds with food that produces strong men, be-
cause it nourshes character by making familiar
with what is high, lasting, great and blessed by
fellow men. Afnties find each other and the
character, in history fully developed, quickens
what lies undeveloped in the young Chatham
loved to the end of his great life to spend bis
spare hours with plutareh
All those who may be called the qnckeners
OF natons--their orators, their statesmen, their
reformers, their commanding authors, their
poets their teachers---have ever been lovers of
history, and have been delighted in walking
through its majestic hall where the statutes of
the past are kept, in solemn and instructive ar.
raging
Louis Napoleon is as consistent, or as the
French themselves would say, as logical in
throwing off the study Of history, as the ruler
of the Lydians was who forbade them to wear
arms,
But history can stand this insult. She will
revenge herself fourfod when she comes to
tell this and other doings of the impairment
tyran, l..