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One voice sflone is heard in History . It is the voice of the Almighty expounding the principles of eternal order , and proclaiming the Nemesis of the human race .
Great legends , —whether in themselves allegories , arising out of the generalization and application of types of history , or the rumour or apotheosis of aetuaLevents , it matters not—great legends of the old time before us exist ; and as the historian of the people of Israel has said , " the finite results of the confused and shifting events [ of
History ] have long since recorded the doctrine they inculcate m letters of flame , as plainly to be understood as they are eternal , and the patient and continual study of which none of us dare to decline any longer ; and although the successful investigation of completed and long since transacted histories be more difficult than recording the #
events of our own times , the utility is likewise greater . Party animosity , religious differences , family ties , do not exist
with reference to these ancient times , and hence their superior value for us ; we can look upon them with unprejudiced eyes , seeking onlythe truth for our instruction , and without such interested motives as even beset the historians of our own nation , where the natural respect for ancestry leads to part ^ views . The right to study and understand its own history is one of the chief privileges and ends of mankind ' s mundane existence , and the more we investigate , when a law stands forth the child of thought and study , the clearer is our perception of the unity and magnitude of the scheme of universal history .
In the superstitious minds of our forefathers there was a dim and mysterious awe concerning the departed spirits of their ancestors , and that awe might teach us to regard the reality of the past as a mighty and undeniable reality , and our present but as a continuation and extension of it .
Professor Qervinus , m his " Introduction to the History of the Nineteenth Century , " has a few sentences which we may profitably apply in this place ; for although he ' refers to the history of the middle age and of our own time , his remarks are quite as true of more ancient times .
" Should we convince ourselves / says he , f " that during three or four consecutive centuries , history has uniformly proceeded in one invariable direction , notwithstanding all impediments and diversions , according to an intrinsic spirit and law , we may readily assume that the three or four spaces of ten years , through which we
have ourselves lived , are subject to a similar tendency . It may then seem not too daring to point to the end , to endeavour to eliminate the signification of our time and the spirit of its history from the very uniformity of this direction , from the connected survey of the present and past . " And the illustration of this historical
* Ewald , Gleschichte dea Volkes Israel , vol . i . p . 2 , 2 nd edition . + Gervinus , Einleitung in die Geschichte des neunaehnten Jahrhundcrts , p . 12 .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
One voice sflone is heard in History . It is the voice of the Almighty expounding the principles of eternal order , and proclaiming the Nemesis of the human race .
Great legends , —whether in themselves allegories , arising out of the generalization and application of types of history , or the rumour or apotheosis of aetuaLevents , it matters not—great legends of the old time before us exist ; and as the historian of the people of Israel has said , " the finite results of the confused and shifting events [ of
History ] have long since recorded the doctrine they inculcate m letters of flame , as plainly to be understood as they are eternal , and the patient and continual study of which none of us dare to decline any longer ; and although the successful investigation of completed and long since transacted histories be more difficult than recording the #
events of our own times , the utility is likewise greater . Party animosity , religious differences , family ties , do not exist
with reference to these ancient times , and hence their superior value for us ; we can look upon them with unprejudiced eyes , seeking onlythe truth for our instruction , and without such interested motives as even beset the historians of our own nation , where the natural respect for ancestry leads to part ^ views . The right to study and understand its own history is one of the chief privileges and ends of mankind ' s mundane existence , and the more we investigate , when a law stands forth the child of thought and study , the clearer is our perception of the unity and magnitude of the scheme of universal history .
In the superstitious minds of our forefathers there was a dim and mysterious awe concerning the departed spirits of their ancestors , and that awe might teach us to regard the reality of the past as a mighty and undeniable reality , and our present but as a continuation and extension of it .
Professor Qervinus , m his " Introduction to the History of the Nineteenth Century , " has a few sentences which we may profitably apply in this place ; for although he ' refers to the history of the middle age and of our own time , his remarks are quite as true of more ancient times .
" Should we convince ourselves / says he , f " that during three or four consecutive centuries , history has uniformly proceeded in one invariable direction , notwithstanding all impediments and diversions , according to an intrinsic spirit and law , we may readily assume that the three or four spaces of ten years , through which we
have ourselves lived , are subject to a similar tendency . It may then seem not too daring to point to the end , to endeavour to eliminate the signification of our time and the spirit of its history from the very uniformity of this direction , from the connected survey of the present and past . " And the illustration of this historical
* Ewald , Gleschichte dea Volkes Israel , vol . i . p . 2 , 2 nd edition . + Gervinus , Einleitung in die Geschichte des neunaehnten Jahrhundcrts , p . 12 .