T. Did your governess tell you the causes of these defeats of the Romans?

P. No, she did not tell us the causes, but the matters of fact. T. Perhaps you understand yourself the causes why the Romans finally retrieved their affairs?

P. To be sure I do: the cause was their bravery.

T. But were they not brave also at the beginning of those wars?

P. Certainly they were.

T. Then their bravery was the cause of their being conquered, and being conquerors?

P. Why-why-—I don't know as to that; but I know I never was asked such hard questions before.

T. Well, well; I will ask you something easier. Is it to be supposed that the Romans would have come off victorious in that war, if the powerful sovereigns of that age had united their forces with the Carthaginians?

P. (With an air of surprise.)

mean?

What sovereigns do you

T. Why, do you not know, that in that age there were in Macedonia, Asia, Syria, and Egypt, all those powerful kings who were the successors' of Alexander the Great?

P. Oh, yes, I know that; but we used to take up their history in another chapter. I never thought of their living at the time of the second Punic war.

T. Do you not perceive, then, that their mutual rivalry was the cause why they did not unite their forces with the Carthaginians to oppose the Romans, in consequence of which, those same kings were afterward conquered, one by one, by the Romans?

P. I perceive it now, since you have told me of it; and I derive much gratification from your remark.

T. It is indeed true, that the perception of the causes of things is not only gratifying, but useful. However, we must still go on to make further deductions from your stock of all history; we must deduct the knowledge of causes.

'Success' or, one who takes the place which another has left, and sustains the like part and character.

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173

P. I can not deny that, to be sure; but I am positive that, with the exceptions you have now made, we learned every thing else in history.

73. THE STUDY OF HISTORY-CONCLUDED.

Teacher. Well, tell me about some of the other things that you learned; tell me what is the beginning of history.

Pupil. The creation of the world.

T. But I meant to ask you about men, and the affairs of men. P. (As if repeating by rote.) The first human beings were Adam and Eve, whom God created on the sixth day, after his own image, and placed in paradise, from which they were afterward expelled, and—

T. Don't go any further, I beg of you; I see you have got some little book well by heart; but tell me now, generally, about what men and things, subsequent' to those, were you instructed by your governess?

P. About the posterity of Adam, the patriarchs before and after the flood, and all about the Jewish nation, to the time of their overthrow.

T. But what makes you think that those things you learned are true?

P. Because they are delivered to us by divine inspiration in the holy Scriptures.

T. But did you find the Roman history, and other things that you have learned, all in the holy Scriptures?

P. Certainly not.

T. But yet you believe them?

P. Believe them! why not? They are related in other books that are worthy of credit.

T. Pray, what books are those?

P. Our governess had two: one, a small book, that we learned to recite; the other, a large work, in several volumes, from which she sometimes read to us.

1Såb' se quent, following; coming after.

In spi rå'tion, act of breath

ing into a thing. Divine inspiration is the knowledge given by God to

men.

T. But were the authors of those books witnesses of the events which they relate?

P. Oh, no; they lived either in our day, or within the memory of our fathers.

T. Where did they get their knowledge of the things mentioned in their books?

P. From other books that are worthy of credit.

T. Do you know those other books?

P. No, I do not.

T. How can you venture, then, to assert that those books are worthy of credit, when you do not know them?

P. I believe what our governess tells us.

T. Pray, how many years old are you?

P. Fifteen.

T. Upon my word! You are now almost grown up, and your governess still treats you like a little child!

P. How so?

T. Why, because she teaches you history just as we tell stories to little children. But do you think the history she

teaches you is true; or is it a matter of indifference' to you, whether you are instructed in the truth or in fables?

P. Indeed, it is far from being indifferent to me; and I am sure that every thing she teaches us is true.

T. Well. if you know that to be the case, then you must know the manner in which you distinguish truth from falsehood.

P. No, I can not say that; but I believe what the governess tells us, because she is a woman of truth.

T. But see how inconsistent you are! One while you say you know these things; then you say you do not know; and then, again, you say you believe in your governess!

P. I can not answer you so easily as I can her; for she, somehow or other, asks me in an easier way.

T. Well, I will ask you something easier. What is history designed to tell us, truth or falsehood?

P. The truth, certainly.

T. Can anybody, then, either teach or be taught history

'In dif fer ence, state in which there is no difference; carelessness.In con sist' ent, not agreeing with; not uniform.

THE STUDY OF HISTORY.

175

properly, without knowing how to distinguish truth from falsehood?

P. Why—I don't know—

T. You don't know! Do you know this, then, whether history is studied for the sake of any utility' to be derived from it? P. I suppose great utility is to be derived from it.

T. What are the advantages of it?

P. Indeed, I do not know.

T. But did not your governess tell you that much of our knowledge is founded upon historical facts? and that we are enabled by history to understand better and more readily other parts of human knowledge? and that it is particularly useful in furnishing examples for the government of life, both in private and in public?

P. No, she did not tell us that; but I think what you tell me seems reasonable.

T. Well, then, answer me one question more::-if any man should go on heaping together money of every sort, and should pay no attention to see if his pieces of coin were good or bad, and should thus become possessed of much counterfeit money, would he not be under a very great disadvantage, when it should become necessary to make use of his money, and he should find 't to be counterfeit ?

P. He certainly would.

T. Again; we have just said that history is the foundation of knowledge: now, do you think it is of no consequence to a building, whether its foundations are solid and firm, or weak and slender?

P. Most certainly, it is of great consequence.

T. You see, by this time, my little friend, what sort of a foundation you have in the history that you have learned. You imagined that you understood all history; you now see how many deductions must be made from your knowledge. You have heard nothing of the historians themselves; nothing of the philosophers and poets; nothing of magistrates and other officers; and, as I perceive, nothing of various other things relat

'Utility, usefulness.- Coun' ter felt, made to appear like a good thing, to pass for it; worthless.

ing to peace and war, times and places; nothing of causes; and, in short, nothing respecting the manner of discerning truth from falsehood: now, when all these things are taken away from your stock of all history, what is there remaining?

P. I now begin to understand, and I am sorry for the labor I have spent in my history

T. No, take courage; for now you may promise yourself that you will know something, because you are sensible how much there is that you do not know; and that you are in need of something more substantial' and efficacious, which shall qualify you for a more perfect knowledge of things and causes; enable you to judge of truth and falsehood; and, in short, make you acquainted with the history of history itself; that is, that you may know what writers have treated of the subjects of history, and of what credit and authority those writers are.

P. Your remarks are věry just; and I beg of you to furnish me with some little book, from which I can learn all this in a short time.

T. My young friend, I see you think that all these things can be learned from a little book, like that which you used to recite to your governess. Now, I do not mean to say that you ought to be sorry for your own labor, or that of your governess; because what you have thus acquired and fixed in your memory, though a puerile3 exercise, will not be without use; but henceforward you must exercise your judgment, and pursue a liberal and exact course of study. This, however, is not to be acquired at once, or by the use of any little book, but by understanding the various books relating to the subject, and by diligently attending on the instruction of those who teach history according to these principles. RUHNKEN.

1.

74. SEASONS OF PRAYER.

O prayer, to prayer! for the morning breaks,

And earth' in her Maker's smile awakes.

'Sub stån' tial, solid; real. Ef fi cà'cious, producing an effect.'Pu'er fle, boyish; weak.-Lib' er al, ample; large and free.-'Exact igz akt'), closely correct or regular.—* Prayer (prår).—' Earth (ẻrth).