The history of Great Britain will sufficiently illustrate the truth of the preceding; remarks ; if entered upon merely as a source of amusement and interest, it is rich and valuable in this point of view. The rude and barba rous state in which this country and its inhabitants existed, at the pc:1M of the Roman conquest, contrasted with its present situation, when it has attained an infinitely higher rank in the scale of intellect and power than Rome ever reached, cannot fail to act as a stimulus to the curiosity, to learn the various events which occurred between these two states so diametrically opposite. Besides this general source of interest and amusement, which the history Britain holds out, there are many particular periods in it, which are almost equally calculated to excite and grAtify these feelings. This is considering the history of Great Muth' in its lowest character; it further illustrates our preceding remarks, by the constant exercise which it af fords for our judgment and penetration ; so that it may be justly affirmed, that the faculties of the human mind will derive from its perusal a great accession to their strength.
But the great advantage to be derived from history,—and this advantage flows in the most direct manner, of the highest character, and in the utmost abundance, from the history of Britaim—consists in this, that by means of it we gain our knowledge of the mechanism of society ; of the reciprocal influence of national character, laws, and go Ve•ffintellt ; of those causes and circumstances, that have operated towards the production and advancement, or the destruction and retardation of civil and religious liberty, and the various branches of science and literature. It leads to a knowledge of man in his social relations : it ex hibits the various operations of different systems of polity upon human happiness. In a country n.hich enjoys so great a portion of civil liberty as happily falls to the lot of the inhabitants of the British empire, almost every order of the community has its influence upon the measures of the le gislative and the executive powers ; consequently, a know ledge of history should be diffused to as wide an extent as possible among them. A familiar acquaintance with the history of their country was, in the best times of the Ro man republic, held to be essentially requisite to qualify youth for stations of dignity, power, and profit, in the ad ministration of public affairs. Hence the bitterness of the sarcasm, tittered by Marius, when he asserted, that, in his degenerate days, men of illustrious birth did not begin to read the history of their country till they were elevated to the highest (faces of the state, that is, as he said, they first obtained the employment, and then bethought them selves of the qualifications necessary for the proper dis charge of it."
In this brief enumeration of the principal uses to be de rived from the study of history, it is presupposed that his torical facts are made the subjects of mature reflection. He who is satisfied with merely storing his mind with a multiplicity of events, even though those events may be of the highest class in point of importance. and calculated to establish or illustrate the most useful principles, will de rive little profit from a great expence of time and labour.
II. The sciences which are of the most constant and general use in the study of history, so as to have deserved to be called its two eyes, are geography and chronology. Without the former, no reader of history can have any clear and distinct idea of what he reads. Moreover. by a know ledge of this science, we are able to verify many past trans actions, which, if they ever happened, must have left in delible traces on the face of the earth. Alany curious ex amples of this nature may be seen in Addison's 1%1 aundrels, and Shaw's Tray els. With respect to chronology. it is absolutely impossible to form clear and distinct notions of the intervals of time, of the rise and fall of empires, and of the successiye establishment of states, without some such general comprehension of the whole current of time, as may enable us to trace out distinctly the dependence of events, and distribute them into such periods and divisions, as shall place the whole train of past transactions in a just and orderly manner before us. For a further illustration of the uses of G KOGUAPII If and Cu RONOLOGY, as applicable to history, we refer our readers to those two articles in this work.
Another branch of study, which ought to be pursued along with the study of history, is what is called statistics; or that laranch Nvilich comprehends an account of the sources of the wealth and power of different states, such as their population, habits of industry, agriculture, manu factures, trade, commerce, and finances. Unless we pos sess information on this head, it is obvious that we shall be much perplexed, and frequently led astray, in our endea vours to account for the comparative influence and exer tions of different nations. Thus, for example, a person ignorant of the advances which Britain has made in agri culture, manufactures, commerce, and what may be called the economics of the state, cannot possibly satisfactorily account For the high rank which"she holds in the scale of European nations,—a rank, to which, from ,he mere in spection of the map of Europe, she does not seem by any means to be entitled.