The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-29

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 Anne to the executioner with a like
 heartlessness.
 Where there is no ambition to shine
 as discoverer the historian may be
 under the influence of narrow or other
 wise faulty ideals of personal worth,
 The hostile critics of Gibbon did not
 succeed very well in fishing for definite
 errors of statement in the XVth and
 XVIth chapters, in which the great his
 torian treated of early Christianity.
 Tn some particulars he was in
 correct, but his main fault lies in the way of putting things. That type of free-thinking prevalent in his day eighteenth century views of Christiani- ty--leaV ened his habit of thought. The faults and foibles of Christian teachers,
 confessors and martyrs, are set in the foreground in a way to allow no true perspective and to shut out a just ap-
 preciation of their moral worth. It is worthy of note, that in describing the martyrdom of Cyprian, Gibbon dWells upon the decorum of the Roman officials
 by whom he was beheaded, as if to throw a shade over the ghastly scene Of
 the murder of an aged bishop of bril- liant powers and spotless character. It
 is a relief to the reader when, once in
 while, character so elevated as that of
 Athanasius calls out from Gibbon cor
 dial tributes of admiration
 It is quite possible for writer to be
 diligent in Investigation and possessed
 of a strong understanding, and free I from any wrong intention, and yet
 merely by his temperament to be dis
 qualified from comprehending an order
 of mind diverse from his own. Owing
 to a lack of imaginative sympathy not
 few are incapable of appreciating
 nature in which enthusiasm is a living
 force. No one doubts that Southey was an accomplished literary man and with
 al a poet; yet when he undertook to
 portray the character and career of
 John Wesley he partially failed. Cole
 ridges annotatlons to Southey's biogra-
 phy of the Methodist founder supply
 the element of spiritual insight. The American edition of that work contains
 the additional notes by a Methodist di
 vine on both Southey and Coleridge.
 The spectacle of this triangular contest is somewhat dramatic. Milman is a
 name always to be mentioned with re-
 spect. The History of Latin Christian ily lo lHG NOl ol esll culicl NlJ
 learned, with broad literary sympathies,
 and free from sectarian partiality. But
 when Miln,an applies himself to de-
 scribe parsonage like Hildebrand, and
 especially to describe that santly mon
 arch, St. Louis of France, we are struck
 with the limitations of the author
 Piety that surpasses the limit of Angll-
 can moderation, devotion that is cou- 1 zr 4@ I,.,
 seem extraVa ances, for instance in the line of austerities inspires in the author
 a certain involuntary disrespect that,
 without design, colors the entire por-
 traiture. Let one compare Neander s , account of the two famous men just
 mentioned with Milman's, and one will
 instantly feel the difference between an
 insight that discerns the essentials of a truly lofty nature and perception that
 stays more on the surface There is
 something almost humorous in the thought of a writer like Hallam, to
 whom anything but an exact statement is repugnant, passing judgment upon a man of rolliclIing fancy like Martin Lu-
 ther whose depth of emotion could find
 no outlet save in hyperbole.
 The historical student is perpetualy
 called upon to discount the influence of personal or party prejudice. The un-
 practiced scholar may be tempted to accept with little or no scrutiny the
 statements of contemporary writers
 merely because they were contempora-
 ry. Here, it is felt, We have the testi- mony of one who was present and saw
 the persons with his own eyes. It is
 forgotten that these witnesses are, not unlikely, the very ones who are warped
 by likes and dslikes. One of the most entertaining of all historical books of
 this class is the Memoirs of St Simon.
 What pictures of court and camp in the days of Louis XIV! What llfe-like por- traits of men and women--racy dascrip- tions of their looks and conduct! Yet few writers are mere swayed by person. al sympathy or antipathy. Ranke's dissection of St. Simon is an invaluable aid to the student, like his critfques of Clarendon, Eurnet, Davila and others of almost equal fame.
 The better tone of history is in noth- . ing more apparent than in the waning : influence of party rrejudices. The GUS r tom of branding heret'cs in politics and religion. or those deemed to he such, 2 with epithets appropriate to thieves and r robbers, no longer prevails. The good 3 old maxim, Audi alteram partem' is coming to be more observed. There is , not only wider search for the requis te f materials of judgment, but also greater 3 impartiality. In seasons of party con- = flict it is curious how a misrepresenta-
 tion will spread. Some of us remember t how, forty years ago, everywhere in the north, the opinion of Chief Justice Ia Q ney in the Dred Scott case was de- |, nounced. He was quoted in countless , newspapers and speeches as having de- clared from the bench that negroes s have no rights which the white man is
 bound to respect" What he did say = was something quite different, namely S that for century before the framing ' of the constitution negroes ''had been regarded as so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was . bound to respect. and that the negro | might justly be reduced to slavery for his . benefit" Whether the chief justice was e perfectly correct in this statement or not, he nowhere expresses an approval = of the sentiment which, he said was for e merly entertained. He might, perhaps, 0 have done well to refer to declarations t in different tone at least like the pas h sage on the iniquity of the slave-trade e which Jefferson inserted in the first