The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-05-01
[From the Detroit Free Press.]
THE MISSION OF HISTORY.
BY LIZZIE YORK CASE.

The historian is an antiquary in who's
cabinet the heroes of the past enjoy tn
dreary immortality of preserved fossils. ID
is doctor who dissects the dead ages, tina
he may add to, rather than heal, the atflic
tons of the living; he is an artist who
when hi finds that men have turned thei
backs upon the world, paints the faces t.
suit himself. trf
"What is history,'' says Voltaire, blu
the tricks men play with the dead"
History is echo, the daughter of air, who
catching the last words of departing time
filings them down to the present. The his
torian, standing below with mouth agape
and arms extended, gathers the scattered
sounds and shapes them up in his kaleido-
scope, where they assume new shapes ane
reflect gorgeous colors, yellow and red, glory
and passion chiefly predominating.
"There is nothing can pay one," say
Lady Montague. ''for that valuable Ignorance
that is the companion Of our youth. To my
extreme modification find myself growing
wiser and wiser every day."
When we have picked rose to pieces leat
by leaf we may have some knowledge O
botany but we have lost our rose so in the
pursuit of history we gain few facts bu
lose our illusions, land the facts even are OF
doubtful authenticity.
Suppose at this moment we should be star
tied by voice in the streets below us, anc
each of US should 60 to the windows to SEE
what caused the disturbance, how do yer
think our several accounts OF the affair would
correspond when we came back to relate it
Suppose we should tell our version of it tt
others, who in their turn would re.tale the
tale? Suppose still others would take al
our stories together and make book, weave
them into a song, or paint them into pic
ture, to hand down to posterity, and sale
posterity, like mental contortionists, woule
turn and twist and torture the account int
still new shapes, bow hear to the origina
fact would the last version of it be, do 70,
think?
This is the process of history. This las
account, after said manipulation, is what W,
have been studying with as much diligence
as if its fate never hung on thread more
slender for this we have resolved ourselves
into an institution for the preservation O.
defunct monstrosities. Although we do no
profess to understand the motives Of thu
men around us, still it is great consolation
to think that we know the secrets of men In
the Fifteenth Century /; we could not, if W.
had all the eyes of Argus, see into the heart
of our own statesmen granting even tina
they had such organs.) But how delightful
to know that we have traced the intricate
ways of the Borgias and the de Medici. Thu
truth and honor of the lords who sit at ou
own 1ireside is matter of faith upon oul
parts, but that Henry VIII, that Blue Beart
| Of history, possessed neither the one no
the other, is matter OF positive knowledge
We see women at our own doors deserted
by faithless swains; but we weep for TIN
fate OF Catherine of Arragon. But it i
loftier and less expensive to sympathz
W it'll and understand men and women GU
|
are they spiritualized, and we discern then
spiritually without the covering of mortali
ty which expresses their faults and passions
am glad we are not 80 near sighted as t.
see only the present, that we are not living
for that little amount which is called to-day
History is painted only upon two panels
the past and the future; the present is onl,
the passage way. by which we step from
jective, the last subjective; the past is full
of intense movement, strong lights an
shadows, which are reflected in the future.
History, to outlive the past, must be sue
cessive and not permanent. Have you eve
been told that facts are stubborn things
Do not believe it. They are pliable as fictio
and change as readily as the Vicar OF Bra
changed his politics, which was with ever
new administrations very provident ar
rangement. From the time we are Dor
until we die we are modified daily and hour
ly. ''There is nothing permanent Blu
CHANGE
History is not merely record Of facts
but the relation of those facts to the ages
1t is not the food that we consume, but tn
nourishment it gives US that we care fol
The most valuable, even as fact of history
is not that Luther protested, but what tina
event has become to us after many years.
is not that printing was invented on eel
tain date, but that this art enables US
read the thoughts Of mighty minds. 1t
not so important that the mariners compass
was the offspring OF certain brain, as ths
by it we are guided over dangerous seas.
is not so important that Michael Angel
studied in the garden Of San Marco, undo
the patronage of Leonardo de Vinci, that Ii
had his nose broken when a boy, and thu
his family were always troubling him fe
money, as that he was an earnest artist of
golden age and enlocked his soul with tn
great forces of his time, OF which his MALE
and brush leave the best historical recort
It is not that Titan should have loaded til
air with coloring, but that the warmth an
light OF it should reach this day. Not tn.
Fra Angelicosand Alfred Drurer were gret
Christian painters, but that when they fir
saw the shadow Of the cross as it fell aboy
Olympus, when Christianity and mytholog
met, they revealed life as it was elevated b
that philosophy which Christ came to inter
pref. 1t is not that Dante was either
Guelph or Ghibeline, but that out Of wa
and contention, hate and love, revenge an
exile, he dreamed dream Of Heaven and I
hell; his heart was like that weed whic
must be trampled upon before it will yiel
fragrance. So cnwoven was he with til
destinies OF his times that the silent cent?
ries ever speak through him.
tits not so important that Gothic arch