Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-08-27

and undscoverable by others, need wonder if mys
terry still more impenetrabe enyeops that complex Of hu-
manity which we call history? The finger of Providence
has from age age been nscrbng Its mighty characters
the scroll Of time but where is the Rosetta by
the aid of which may read of the herogyphs? The
most that do ia spell here and there bro
ken sentence while all the is left to be guessed at
by the ingenious accommodation Of facts to theory
Where much has been nterpoated it is hard to ascer-
tain the genuine and authentic reading. Old Father
Chronos, the great weaver Goethe calls him. is not
we sure, at work upon Penelopes web undong by
night what he has wrought by day. but ever Plying his
loom in the present he knis with swift gliding shutes
the future with the past We think that the many
coored threads which he enter the warp and woot
n undistnguhed confusion be works according to pat
term all unconscious Of though he be- there are figures
in the tissue he weaves but it is not for him to see them
while as yet they unfinished and incomplete.
All history may have deep philosophy hidden beneath
its fragmentary Developments but it has not yet found
Ia Bacon. We remember another occasion to have
limited that after ALL the true philosophy Of history might
better be called the theology Of history 1t Is only when
we from without the domain Of human caprice,
and view it the gradual but systematic unfolding Of
etermnatc counsel and foreknowlsdge that place
its science and firm basis The theology Of his
tory in its great lines and characters we read for
we have in sacred story record Of the past and in in
spired prophecy more than Rosetta stone and Buun
inscription to reveal the future whereunto do well
to take heed as light that shineth in dark place,
until the day dawn and the day-star arise"
History may be viewed in three aspects Regarded in
its smaller periods it before with simple and
homogeneous character moulded by determinate
and predominant influences When comprehended in its
greater periods presents the picture of continual libra
tons between opposing impulses which work against the
preponderance Of any single dea of any single power or
movement. When surveyed in the grand lapse Of centu
res, constant streaming in determined direction, de-
spte this interchange Of ebb and flow, the progress of
some prevailing idea becomes unnistakeabe. The ear
ier annasts Of every nation compelled perforce to
relate history of the kind first mentioned They take
sognzance simply Of facts without seeking uspectng
any interdependence among them Such was Herodotus
among the Greeks In the course of few generations
the historian reaches higher standpoint and detects in
the that around him the resultant force Of
opposing agencies and conflicting motives but how these
resulting consequents are destined to combine with
sutng antecedents, to form the indsscuble links
in series of necessary to the evolution of some
grand effect, he is utterly ignorant Such historian
was Thucyddes. As time flows still higher eleva-
ton attained Society and the State have through
their scale of progress and reached their grand cmac
terc, from which, through VISTA the eye of the his
torca critic can scan the rate and the direction by which
particular people have under their various stoppngs
and hndrances been finally borne onward to their ulti
mate destination Such historical critic was Aristotle
History of the first order is narrave that Of the second
is argumentative that of the last is philosophical
When nation has reached its eliminating point and not
till then we are prepared write the philosophy of
much of its history relates to ite rise and prosrs@s
But there is philosophy also 70 be ednced from ts de-
cline and fall well; that we are not prepared to
sum up grand and irreversble results Of nation
history until it has passed off the stage Of action in the
worlds drama and here the special history Of this na
tion ends.
Other nations however, rise in turn aud go through
their appointed stages OF progress decline, and fall
Their of development and decadence seem TO be
much the same in each. And it is that new depart
nent is opened in historical literature which may call
comparative history. In it the writer concerns himself
with special history only to collate it with all other spe
cial histories Such historical analyst (not an danais
we beg the printer well the reader to observe was
the Italian Jean Bapste Vice. the father of the philoso
ply of history in the modern accepaton OF the term
But in the idea Of Vco universal progress of the entire
race was permitted to enter. He did not fancy him
self to have reached the point from which he could dis
cern the tendency Of all mankind towards some universal
aim and object Of attainment. The doctrine Of mani
fest destiny was yet untaught. The dream Of human
pNieetaby was not yet escaped from the ivory gaVe
the hgment Of worldwide republic and of universal
liberty, equality and fraternity had not yet turned the
brains Of political propagandsts But in these latter days
the historical philosophers have taken step in advance
Of vico They profess-and Gervinus is Of their num-
ber-o discern in the signs Of all time the marks of
constant though not uniform tendency the power Of
which is bearing the whole in greater and still
greater oscillations towards its point Of highest ascension
II may be so but for ourselves cons trained as
yet to rest with yco History, understand il, is
record Of the past not prophecy Of the future When
the entire race shall have attained the Jona Of
social and political beatude, shall be in condition
to write the philosophical history Of its progress towards
this consummation devoutly to be wished" Though
it be true as the poet tells that coming events cast
their shadows before they yet too ndstnot and un-
defined justify considering them any thing else than
the phantasms and ata ogana Of world which another
poet assures Us is all
"-an empty show,
For mans illusion given.
History has been npty iikened to the progress Of
stream which, when we encounter in any part Of its
course we may follow for certain distance as 1t fingers
and wanders "at its own sweet will, but without being
able to say whence it had its origin in what general d-
recton flowing and where will empty its tribute