VAUGHAN'S INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON GENERAL HISTORY,
IN these days of striking paradox and skilful compilation, it is gratifying to peruse a production like the present, which not only throws into forty pages the result of many years' research and re- flection, but which promises to supply a desideratum in l iterature- a useffil, a philosophical, an eloquent, and a sufficient survey of Universal History. The term " promise" should, however, be qualified. There is nothing in the pamphlet which would lead us to suppose that Mr. VAUGHAN has any idea of publishing his future lectures. Those who like the specimen, and would be cer- tain of profiting by the labours of the author, must receive their information from his own lips. From a passage in the lecture be- fore us, it would seem (if we understand it rightly), that these persons are few in number. We trust this is an incorrect con- clusion; and that the merits of Professor VAUGHAN, and the fact of his lecturing, only require to be known. The object of Mr. 'VAUGHAN, to use his own language, " is not to declaim about history, or to cull out a series of its pictures, but everywhere to detect its spirit and its uses." Adopting the plan of classification which has been found so beneficial in every other department of' science, be considers that History, in the liberal meaning of the term, embraces, first, legislation and govern. ment ; second, commerce, science, and art; third, literature; fourth, religion ; and lastly, national character, including manners and customs. It is his intention to view it under all these points; not touching upon them incidentally and in a scattered manner, but sufficiently developing each. The first course will commence with the earliest period of recorded history, and terminate with the fall of the Roman Empire, in the fifth century. The second will treat of the rise, progress, and meridian greatness of Mahometism, from the birth of the prophet till the close of the fifteenth century. A third will relate to Europe during the same period, and will conclude the author's division of Ancient History.
Modern History will likewise embrace three epochs. From the age of CHARLES the Filth to the accession of Louis the Four- teenth; from that period to the commencement of the French Revolution ; the closing course will come down to the present time. Two sessions will be required for the accomplishment of this plan; and the lecturer seems to propose addressing the eve as well as the mind, and to appeal to the sight by means of the artist's assistance,—to show the position of places and the figure of a country, by large maps; to illustrate the state of the prac- tical arts, by drawings of ancient cities ; of the fine arts, by sketches of the monuments, &c., of the respective ages; and (not the least curious) of the military science and tactics, by an ocular exhibition of their implements of destruction and defence.
How this extensive undertaking may be executed, we cannot tell. But the character of the University is some guarantee. The execu- tion of the Introductory Lecture is a still better. The thorough knowledge of what is required from a teacher, proves at least that the nature of the task is undertood. The distinct and definite conception—the clear expression—the sowed, aad what is more, the sensible logic—and the genius, at least the eloquence, which gives force and animation to the whole—show that the skill and abilities requisite to select the materials, and to manufacture them, are not wanting. We will cull a few specimens in support of this opinion.
WHAT HISTORY IS.
History has to do with real occurrences, as distinct from the fiction* of hoe. gination, and from abstract conceptions: the former we denominate fable, die ratter science. History, indeed, requires the presence of imagination, that its pictures of the past may possess something of the force of the present; and the aid of strong mental perception is no less needed, that its facts may be made sub- servient to utility. But the imagination has more to do with making history attractive, than in giving it existence; and we look to enlarged views for it* philosophy, more than for its substance. Still, in our day, the appellation of historian would be regarded as greatly misapplied (and very properly so), if be.. stowed on the author of a mere chronicle of occurrences, produced on no intelli- gent principle of selection, and without reference to any wise or dignified result.
History, accordingly, in our view of it, partakes of what is much more inte- resting and important than a bare recording of facts. It embraces an account of whatever has happened that may be so presented as to minister to the gratifi- cation and improvement of the human mind. It is conversant with the past, partly for the sake of amusement ; principally for the sake of instruction. It is busied with what has been, that it may live again, and that it may serve to cor- rect and elevate what is, and what shall be. Within its province ample space is
found for the pleasing and the useful ; for whatever is powerful in genius, whatever is expansive in benevolence. Man, in all the diversities and all the complexities of human character, and the circumstances of man, embracing the ever-changing combinations of the many elements of his social being, all belong to the substance of history.
REQUISITES OF AN HISTORIAN.
I should not have made any reference to these household stories (of Alfred the Great), but for the purpose of observing that it is not the distance of time and place only which produces difficulty in judging of reported events. The various circumstances that may accompany the testimony of a witness, and the many shades of character that may belong to him, all have their place among the things which should influence our credulity or our scepticism. I most state, therefore, conscious—deeply conscious as I am of my own deficiencies when doing so—that the historian, to be fully equal to his vocation, needs be a man, not only of much reading and of tenacious memory, but one possessing that penetrating and comprehensive knowledge of human nature which can result only from good natural parts, aided by severe self-scrutiny and much actual con- tact with human affairs.
Added to these natural and acquired capabilities, must be the claims of high moral character. History is defined by Cicero as "the light of truth." It scarcely need be remarked, that history will so be, only as coming from a lover of truth. It is possible, without descending to the more direct forms of false- hood, so to misrepresent or discolour the facts of history, as to produce a false impression. In either case, history is deprived of the high character assigned to it by the Roman Orator; and much is it to be deplored that the men who so cor- rupt it, have not shared more commonly and more largely in the reprobation al- lotted to other culprits, who practise frauds upon society. Where there is not a commanding love of truth, and of humanity, the great prerequisites of the his- torian are wanting. Every other qualification may be possessed without these, and possessed only to do evil. There may be a power to fascinate, and so there will always be among some of the most fraudulent and dissolute in every community, and for ends equally worthy. Mean, however, as it may be' " to give to a:party what was meant for mankind," it is possible to descend lower. Laborious researches in history may be prosecuted by minds having scarcely more respect for that humanity with which history has to do, than had the mo- narchs ot ancient Egypt for the materials out of which the pyraniids, the mos* numents of their personal glory, were to be constructed. There is a kind of intellectual sovereignty to whiel men often aspire, and which disposes them to look on the multitudes, both of the dead and the living, in scarcely any other light than as the means by which they are to obtain their own proud and pecu-
liar ascendancy. ' . It is enough for them that human nature exists and that by i writing about t they can make themselves wondered at, and to be remembered. Of all partisans, the man whose partisanship springs thus from a contempt of the species, and centres in himself, is the most despicable.
It is my further conviction that the mind which has no sympathy with the ordinary thoughts and emotions of the human spirit on matters of religion, can never be competent to afford a fair and satisfactory view of man and his affairs. To recognize the supernatural in .some form, amd to be more or less influenced by it, is common to human nature. The historian who is himself a stranger to this tendency, and who is not in consequence prepared to respect it in no few of the forms which it assumes, will have to treat, at every step, of effects with- out causes. The effect of this circumstance must be, that he will task his ima- gination or his humour, in order to account for events which might otherwise have been readily explained by an appeal to his own bosom, and by the exercise of a wiser observation. My province in this University, and I wish the state- ment to be emphatic, is not to teach religion. At the same time, the extent in which mankind have been influenced by it, either in its false forms or in the true, is such as by no means to allow of its being wholly omitted. Man is the great subject of history; and religion, in nearly every age and nation, has been a master element in the development of man.
These quotations might easily be extended: but our object is not to pall, but to stimulate. We would send the reader to the work, or rather to the lectures. It would indeed be discreditable to the "spirit of the age,- if they are allowed to drop, or to languish frees want of encouragement.
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