The Portland daily press., 1863-01-21
New Publications.

| do regard the opposite sides of one thought as
existing independently 1t is as if our thoughts
lay in strata; we may either regard the whole
mass in its solid bulk, we may cleave off an
outer layer, equally real and solid but thinner
and fix our attention upon that.
Civilization then has a mental and a NOR
al phase-these two; and its advancement must
be either in the line of intellectual or of social
progress, must result in some advantage to
knowledge or to Society. knowledge however,
regarded independently, is also twofold, of facts
and of causes. History, poetry, oratory, all
that is called Literature, simply reproduces and
fixes feeting phenomena. The combinations
may be new. but they are woven of fact. The
opposite side of knowledge is Science, the inves-
tgation of causes. In the same way the two
contradictions, Law and Liberty are not incom-
patible but SO far from it that they necessarily
combine to make up the idea of Society.
Now in the history of every nation, which has
done anything for Civilization, we shall find
one side of the medal more obvious than the
other, turned toward us; not that the reverse
is wanting, but it lies comparatively obscure
The world owes no race double debt Either
eHN sum VI hhoWAcuse HIS betH ldTHely Increased
by its contributions, or the institutions of Socie-
ty have notably thriven under its hands; never
both in equal degrees Such perfect poise would
be more than human. SO also we may expect to
find the subdivisions of knowledge and the two
elements of Society embodied somewhere in ma
tional life The history of European Civilization
must be essentially embraced in the history of
four nations, standing for Literature and Sci
ence the one hand and Law and Liberty on
the other.
1t is easy to name them They are the nations
ofHomer and LaPlace, of Justinian and Crom-
well. There is no literature comparable with
the Greek; the clear precision of the French
tongue marks the language of science; no law
yer has mastered his profession, until he has
traced it to its cradle in the Roman law; the
English act OF ha6eds corpus is splendid way
mark in the history Of liberty. The ancient civ
ilization was busted with the outer beauty of ma
ture and the task of moulding discoriant social
elements into harmonious and orderly whole:
the modern seeks out the law that underles the
facts OF nature, and the individual rights that
underle society. Between them rolls the great
gulf of the middle. transitional ages. To the
cyclopedic history of civilization must be added
then, as fifth part. the history of this period.
1t is no little praise, to say that the five VOL
umes of the Students Histories, republisbed IN
this country by the Harpers, cover the ground
indicated by this plan. 1t is more to saw that
while embracing the last results of the profound
est historical researches of an age in which this
whole field has been explored with minute ac-
curacy never before dreamed of, they are vet
brought within n compass suited TO the wants of
the general student who needs, and if possible.
must have the golden lessons of these TWENTY
FIVE centuries, and yet cannot get time 10 die
them out of the mine. To such students these
books are offered in place of Goldsmith's ele-
CANT but superficial compends of ancient histo-
nv, almost the sole resource of the last genera
ton, and in place of an utter dearth of books
handling briefly and perspicuously medieval and
modern history.
The History of Greece is written by DR.. VIM.
Smith, editor of the dictionaries of Greek and
Roman Biography, &C., which have become in
dispensable to the professional scholar lisa
matter of necessity that this work should be
founded chiefly upon Mr.. Grote's recent studies;
no writer Of a school history could at present
be justified in contravening results reached by
labors so mastery. For the chapters on ltera-
ture and art DIR. Smith quotes Col Mure's au
thority, and none better could be desired. The
composition, the making up of the book howev-
er, is wholly original, and the pure, lucid Eng
hsh in which it is written deserves the highest
praise.
Dean Liddell's History of Rome exhibits more
original study, from the nature of the case. Mr..
Grote's conclusions cannot and should not be as
sailed until sufficient time has elapsed to allow
them to be submitted to tests as thorough as
those by which they have been obtained Since
the publication of Niebuhr's Roman History.
some of his most brilliant theories have proved
baseless, and the writer of a school history NAV
and must now exercise free choice in the use of
materials which have recently accumulated The
terse vigor of Dean Liddell's style is in admira-
bic keeping with his subject. He is most widely
known in this country as one of the authors of
Liddell and Scott's Greek and English Lexicon.
work as far superior to our chickering's as
Pickering's was in its day superior to the Greek
and Latin Lexicons it supplanted.
Over the medieval chaos there is Of course but
one bridge-Gibbon's History of the Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire. An abridge-
ment of this immense work, which Sheridan
once complimentcd as luminous in Parliament,
declaring afterwards that he meant ro-luminous,
forms the next volume Of the series. 1t is enough
to say that il is written by DR.. Smith, and in
corporates into the text the researches of recent
commentators The polemcal passages in the
original work have been omitted altogether
An infringement of Hume's History of Eng
land, with all its Defects to quote the Ian
guage of the London Times, 1.-THE best history
of the period over which it extends,'' comes
next, incorporating the corrections of recent
historians and continued to 1858. The growth
of the English Constitution is traced with a care
commensurate with the importance of the sub
ject, and several constitutional documents, such
as the Petition of Right and the Bill of Rights,
are printed at length. To American, and even
to English readers, the care taken to distinguish
different families bearing the same tile, and in
common histories only known by it. will prove
the means of clearing up much confusion.
The History of France is written by an En-
glish scholar, long resident upon the continent
and intimately acquainted with his subject
French literature is peculiarly rich in the hisor,
ical department; but general history embrace
ing the whole story eff the nation, has until re-
Gently been a desideratum. Thv present MARIA
tive comes down to 1882. In this and the pre-