New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1853-12-19
EDITORIAL BooK..NOTES.

themselves - Tue ShlQtS. Fl
| EDITORIAL Bo0K-.NOTES.
aHistory of Greece. By George Grots Esq Vol XII
| Reprinted from the London edition New York Har-
| PER Brothers. 1887 PIP. 522
| This book comes to us from the bookstore Of
Mr.. ]. G. Morgan. It is of a dignity among
books of its kind, which will warrant some
special remarks on the composition and the
study of History.
He who wants to understand as we'll as feel
the real principles of civil life-the art Of
founding or of directing and preserving socie-
ties-must be thorough historian. And what
may seem little paradoxical is strictly true
that the greater the apparent advance of the
art Of government, the greater becomes the
necessity that they who use it should be en-
lightened historians. For government, in its
supposed advancement, is always subject to be-
come the sport Of theorists, of new tangled
philosophers and mechanicians Of government,
so as to degenerate from an experimental into
speculative science. Indeed, there are really
but two great schools Of government-the one
the Imaginative, the other the Historical. The
Historical alone, when joined with the Practical,
is safe; for the Imaginative, or Speculative,
have heretofore always proved visionary or
disastrous
| In truth, sound history wisely read, must be
the bible of politics; which are no more at.
tainable without it, than Christian morals with
out the Scriptures.
Treatises on government, on the other hand
may be likened to those on rhetoric; and as
these never taught men to write or to speak,
those can never teach them to govern
So much in brief of one OF the great purposes
of studying history. A few words now as to
the manner of writing it.
There may be said to be three methods of
composing history The first of these is that
adopted by Livy Of old. and by our own admi-
rable Goldsmith Of late-the Picturesque The
second is that of which the best example among
the ancients is Thucydides, and among the
moderns, Gibbon--the Philosophical. The
third sort is vastly commoner than either, and
has thousand examples. 1t is that which is
neither picturesque nor philosophical Itaffects
neither the imagination nor the understanding
The first named sort of history, it will easily
be seen, is eminently fit to seize upon the fancy
OF the young, and excite their affections. 1t
does not conduct the narrative by regular de-
tails; but seizes upon the main incidents, paints
these wildly, and turns the whole series of
events into succession of animated historical
pictures.
The second method enters infinitely into all
that makes up the public being of a nation-its
religious faith, its legislature, its morals, its
m mn al nd
nature. and all the particulars of history lucidly
exhibited in their causes. Picturesque history
can only act to elevate ones connections and en-
noble ones feelings. Philosophical history alone
can teach men politics As for the third sort. |
it is hardly necessary that we should explain
how it is to be written; inasmuch as men can |
all write in that way, and will write the more
perfectly the less they have been instructed.
One thing more as the result of our own study |
of history. In the first place, history ably
written is good in proportion,as it sets before
you the details of each event; the particulars
necessary to its understanding For it is the |
details of history alone which are instructive |
Arrangements, therefore, are utterly useless, |
and can never teach anything but hollow and
shallow acquaintance with history-such an &C.
quaintance as may be called a mere speaking
In the second place, it must be taken for |
good general rule, that cotemporary histories
that is to say histories written as far as posi-
Bile by those who werepresent at the facts-are |
10 be preferred to all others Even though in
Ierior in other respects, they give one q much |
surer knowledge of the spirit of the time and
the people-one Of those important elements
which cannot be obtained except from cotempo-
rary writers. History, written at distance
of time or of country, is almost sure to be false
drawn far more from that which is
about you than from that of which you suppose
yourself to be treating.
OF Mr.. Grote, it is sufficient, after what we
have said, merely to say that his is an able and
history of those Grecian States
who are the best study that we in this country
have, except, of course, English, and our own
history.