Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-09-03

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.
Introduction to the History Of the Nineteenth Century
BY G. G. GERvlSUs. Leipsic 1858.

We propose to-day to subject its contents to closer
examination, and to lay before readers some of
the historical processes and results which compose
the subject-matter of this treatise And in doing
SO we shall aim simply to condense our authors
statement of his opinions and deductions in histori-
cal science, without intending either to adopt them
as the expression of our own or to make them the
theme of critical refutaton. We prefer to regard
the work as an able and oogcnt argument in favor
of the writer's Interpretation of history in its volu
minous and oft-times obscure if not contradictory
pages. Unless history be volume like that which
John the reyelator saw in holy vision--"a book
sealed with seven seals'-we must suppose it our
duty to ponder Its contents and weigh well its teach
ings If history be- as the Greek rhetorician first
observed and Lord Bolingbroke after him, philo-
sophy teaching by example, it becomes by an in
duction Of its facts to educe this philosophy of the
past in order that we may learn by its unchanging
and wellauthenticated principles to predict the
future.
History has come in modern times to be regarded
not only interesting branch Of literary research
the part of writers and of literary entertainment
on the part of readers, but also as an element of
speculation to be applied the elucidaton Of every
department Of human activity and Intellectual pur-
suit. Law, medicine, politics, theology, and mental
philosophy have each their history and it is in the
light Of this history that best able to discern
their nature object influence, and prospective des
tination. As Morell well observes on this point
the human mind, in its application to any subject of
intellectual study, has history and development
of its own, and involves certain great laws Of pro-
gress quite apart from the individual These laws
can be watched, and to extent at least be de-
termined, by careful process of investigation; and
thus the empircism of history may unite with the
priori elements of philosophical speculation to
pour new life into the great problems Of mans ma
ture and destiny. According to this view we are
not to seek abstract and absolute truth from the
deductions of the pure reason, but to educe it
from careful scrutiny of the OF Providence,
in which the truth is constantly unfolding itself to
the human intelligence in that vast aggregation of
facts and experiences on all subjects which com
poses the body of universal history. 1t is from
knowledge of the secret laws Of spiritual progress
that the mind of man gets deeper ntuitve insight
into the phenomena of nature and the moral world;
and it is the problem of philosophy in every age to
embody the highest experience OF that age into a
reflective system of ideas" The object Of Geryinus
IN the treatise about to examine is to develop
the political experience of the past into vectir system
oas the general nature and tendency politics in
the future lie regards the philosophy of history chiefly
if not entirely, in its bearings government We pro-
coed, briefly possible exhibit prospectus of his
method Of investigation and the general results of his
tonal processes.
of political development deducole from the history Of
Greece In its earliest ages Homer paints them when
the population small and when general culture and
wealth were the property Of few, Greece ruled by
patriarcha kings who the sole possessors of
chariot and the presiding heads in the army the presy
office, and in the administration of justice When, in
progress of time the number the educated the wealthy
and Af those entitled tn hear innrA~~-a, ~-a
when in the preponderance decided by cavalry
in the State while that of the kings checked in Sparta
and every where else abolished When the increasing
prosperity of the middle classes and the Improvement of
the art of war; the infantry became Of greater Importance
and the service Of the lower orders needed in naval
contests to the ships the supremacy of the people
and the democratic form Of succeeded the rule
of the arstocracy The civil developments Of Europe,
according Gervnus, have followed and still follow
ing precisely similar course though in far greater
proportion and relation of Masses times and spaces At
frst the early occupation Of Europe by the Germanc
patriarcha kings ruled here elder Greece but
their supreme and sole authority expanded into
the homogeneous but divided authority of medieval chiv
airy and feudaism which repressed every where the
eregnty Of the king without however aboshng the Office
dignity. But since the time when personal pro-
perry began make its influence felt since cities
rich by trade and industrial pursuits and the Swiss in
fantry their precedence in war-hat is, after the
fifteenth cenurythe supremacy of the feudal nobility
shaken by tremendous struggle this day not end
ed in which the middle class apres unite in itself the
elements of property, education, and political influence
while the lower orders press close upon their heels
In these internal notifications of government the tran
ston from monarchy to aristocracy easy and simple
the passage hence however to the supremacy Of the
pie has always been complicated and difficult In the
former it only needed to unite few against one
who, of course found himself incompetent to withstand
the combination; in the latter, it is necessary to unite
the popular masses-a task the more difficult because
among them interest and cultivation are not so homoge-
neous and their divided property fails to work power
fully the accumulated riches Of few families Hence
in Greece at the time of her transition to popular supre-
macy internal degeneration of the arisocracy
ncious spolaton Of society, disregard yea destruc-
ton Of the public prosperity first necessary before
this result was brought about But despite this decline
of the arstocracy the people needed strong and skul
leader who, to be sure helped them to PROSTATE the
aristocracy but only to build upon the ruins dynasty
for themselves and their families. During almost two
centuries the rule Of the yrants was extended
Grecian States but time opened the road for the
advent Of democracy for while in the interim it kept
back the power Of the people, yet in the end It became
auxiliary to the cause of the people by conquering for
them their most powerful enemy, the aristocracy
This entire passage from the overthrow Of the aristo
cacy 10 the prevalence of democratic institutions in
reece mas Its exact parallel in the history the modern
European states except that here every thing in