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PREFACE

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THE FIRST PART.

THE object of the present work is to provide some help for students who, having gone through the ordinary school course, wish to devote themselves to the special study of some part of the history of their country. Such persons chiefly require an indication of the books which it would be well for them to study, and that service is rendered to them by Mr. Mullinger, whose work forms the kernel of the volume, and to whom also I offer my hearty thanks for the care with which he looked over the proofs of my part of the book, and for the valuable assistance which he gave me in so doing. What I have attempted to do is to give help of a different kind. For those who wish to make progress in historical study, careful and minute investigation is indispensable. It is only by degrees that the student learns how much his power of judging fairly the characters of history depends upon complete accuracy in the matter of dates and places. A word spoken or a thing done will convey a very different impression, as its relation to some other word

or action is known or unknown. By knowing this relation the inquirer learns not merely what took place, but how it took place. When he finds how everything follows naturally from that which precedes it, he begins to understand that connection between cause and effect the knowledge of which is the necessary preliminary to all sober criticism of actions and persons.

Yet this is not all. The personalities of history are not merely figures flitting across a stage, of whom it is enough to learn the motives and the actions. They are themselves the result of causes which existed generations before they were born, and influence results for generations after they die. No one, therefore, can really study any particular period of history unless he knows a great deal about what preceded it and what came after it. He cannot seriously study a generation of men as if it could be isolated and examined like a piece of inorganic matter. He has to bear in mind that it is a portion of a living whole which is under his observation. The work of the constructive imagination comes in where the work of investigation ends. In the end this is a work which every man must do for himself. out from the manifold facts of history those which seem to him to be more important than the others, and it will never happen that any two men will be precisely agreed as to the relative importance of any set of facts. Yet it may not be altogether useless to those who are girding themselves to the task to have before them an attempt to trace the life of the English nation by one who has at all events given much of his time and thought in an attempt to realise to himself what that life has been.

He will have to pick

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HISTORY is the record of change, of the new circumstances into which communities of men are brought, and of the new ideas called forth by those circumstances and by which circumstances are in turn moulded.

Savage tribes have no history, because they know no change. They hunt and fish, or repel their enemies, on the same soil and under the same climate from generation to generation.

The most momentous change which comes over such tribes is that brought about by the introduction of slavery. When any body of men felt itself strong enough to utilise the labours of its enemies, it had advanced one step in the direction of mercy, and being now able to spare itself the necessity of toiling for the bare necessaries of life, was able to devote some time to procuring material comforts which would ultimately become the solace of others as well as of themselves.

CHAP.
I.

§ 1. What is History?

§ 2.

Savage
Tribes.

$3. Intro

duction of

Slavery.

great

Mon

Another step in the same direction was taken when $4. The a race, no longer content with the capture of individual Asiatic slaves, subjected a whole race to its domination, content-archies. ing itself with the exaction of tribute or of personal service in some way which did not involve the complete loss of personal freedom. In such a way arose the great

CHAP.

I.

Asiatic monarchies which meet us at the dawn of traditional history, and which are doubtless only advanced types of earlier efforts in the same direction. To some extent both the conquerors and the conquered were the better for what had taken place. The conquered populations composed of many tribes were no longer allowed to wage war with one another. For the first time they enjoyed the blessings of peace, and the material advantages which accompany it. The conquerors had a far greater share in the enjoyments of the world. They learned to practise the virtues of a dominant race, and made some progress in intellectual knowledge. There was organisation of government and of the military force. But it was organisation for the sake of the governors, not for the sake of the governed. There was no amalgamation between the two, no sense of duty urging on the governors to improve the condition of the governed. So long as a subject tribe paid its tribute and did not annoy its neighbours in such a way as to prevent them from paying theirs, they might live as they pleased amongst themselves. What interference there was was simply for the objects of the ruling race. The fairest maidens might be carried off by force or persuasion, to fill the harems of the governing class, as when Esther was brought before Ahasuerus. The goodliest young men might be driven away to fight for that same class, as when Rabshakeh offered two thousand horses to Hezekiah if he would set riders upon them. But each man or woman selected went not to draw the union closer between governors and governed, but to swell the ranks of the governors, just as in later times no benefit has accrued to the subjects of the Ottoman Turks in Europe, by the abduction of women or by the seizure of male children to form the corps of Janissaries.

CHAP.

I.

ernments established by them

not per

The head of such a government is necessarily despotic. The members of the governing race are far more interested in preserving the strict discipline which alone $5. Govenables it to retain its sway, than in guarding each individual of their number against the tyranny or caprices of the monarch. Any special case in which the manent. despot places himself in antagonism with the feeling of the race in general, or of those who immediately surround his person, is easily provided for by his assassination. It is seldom that the dynasty to which such a ruler belongs maintains itself long in power. Doing nothing for the subject races, it has no gratitude to expect from them, and in times of danger they show no eagerness to come to its assistance. When Babylon was taken by Cyrus, the Lady of kingdoms fell in a moment as if it had been swallowed up by an earthquake. Three

battles disposed of the Persian empire with almost equal suddenness. It mattered little to the Syrian peasant whether he paid tribute to a Nebuchadnezzar, a Darius, or an Alexander. His own lot was not likely to be improved by any change from one to the other.

Greek

Very different was the condition of the petty Greek $ 6. The states which hurled back the whole weight of the Persian Republics. monarchy in its day of power. In Greece the tribe came into contact with the outer world not by conquest, but by commerce, exploration, and sometimes by piracy. It drew wealth from others without bringing upon itself the task of keeping them in subjection. Its character changed from that of a rural to that of a city community. The quick-witted thoughtful race occupied every domain of poetry, of oratory, of art, and of philosophy. Athens, the foremost of all the Greek states, was the first to show that the supremacy of the free population over its magistrates could be exercised not by inarticulate shouts or noisy clashing of arms, but by deliberate vote

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