Codrus and the Decii devoted themselves to death:one,because an oracle had foretold that the army whose general was killed would be victorious;the others in compliance with a superstition that bore great analogy to a ceremony practised in the old Egyptian church,and added afterwards,as many others of the same origin were,to the ritual of the Israelites.These are examples of great magnanimity,to be sure,and of magnanimity employed in the most worthy cause.In the early days of the Athenian and Roman government,when the credit of oracles and all kinds of superstition prevailed,when heaven was piously thought to delight in blood,and even human blood was shed under wild notions of atonement,propitiation,purgation,expiation,and satisfaction;they who set such examples as these,acted an heroical and a rational part too.But if a general should act the same part now,and,in order to secure his victory,get killed as fast as he could,he might pass for a hero,but,I am sure,he would pass for a madman.Even these examples,however,are of use:they excite us at least to venture our lives freely in the service of our country,by proposing to our imitation men who devoted themselves to certain death in the service of theirs.They show us what a turn of imagination can operate,and how the greatest trifle,nay the greatest absurdity,dressed up in the solemn airs of religion,can carry ardor and confidence,or the contrary sentiments,into the breasts of thousands.
These are certain general principles,and rules of life and conduct,which always must be true,because they are conformable to the invariable nature of things.He who studies history as he would study philosophy,will soon distinguish and collect them,and by doing so will soon form to himself a general system of ethics and politics on the surest foundations,on the trial of these principles and rules in all ages,and on the confirmation of them by universal experience.I said he will distinguish them;for once more Imust say,that as to particular modes of actions,and measures of conduct,which the customs of different countries,the manners of different ages,and the circumstances of different conjunctures,have appropriated,as it were;it is always ridiculous,or imprudent and dangerous to employ them.
But this is not all.By contemplating the vast variety of particular characters and events;by examining the strange combination of causes,different,remote,and seemingly opposite,that often concur in producing one effect;and the surprising fertility of one single and uniform cause in the producing of a multitude of effects,as different,remote,and seemingly as opposite;by tracing carefully,as carefully as if the subject he considers were of personal and immediate concern to him,all the minute and sometimes scarce perceivable circumstances,either in the characters of actors,or in the course of actions,that history enables him to trace,and according to which the success of affairs,even the greatest,is mostly determined;by these,and such methods as these,for I might descend into a much greater detail,a man of parts may improve the study of history to its proper and principal use;he may sharpen the penetration,fix the attention of his mind,and strengthen his judgment;he may acquire the faculty and the habit of discerning quicker,and looking farther;and of exerting that flexibility,and steadiness,which are necessary to be joined in the conduct of all affairs that depend on the concurrence or opposition of other men.
Mr Locke,I think,recommends the study of geometry even to those who have no design of being geometricians:and he gives a reason for it,that may be applieS to the present case.Such persons may forget every problem that has been proposed,and every solution that they or others have given;but the habit of pursuing long trains of ideas will remain with them,and they will pierce through the mazes of sophism,and discover a latent truth,where persons who have not this habit will never find it.
In this manner the study of history will prepare us for action and observation.
History is the ancient author:experience is the modern language.We form our taste on the first,we translate the sense and reason,we transfuse the spirit and force;but we imitate only the particular graces of the original;we imitate them according to the idiom of our own tongue,that is,we substitute often equivalents in the lieu of them,and are far from affecting to copy them servilely.To conclude,as experience is conversant about the present,and the present enables us to guess at the future;so history is conversant about the past,and by knowing the things that have been,we become better able to judge of the things that are.
