Archbishop Whately, thus remarks: "It would have been well if Bacon had added some hints as to the mode of study; how books are to be chewed,' and 'swallowed' and 'digested.' For, besides inattentive readers, who measure their proficiency by the pages they have gone over, it is quite possible, and not un common, to read most laboriously, even so as to get by heart the words of a book, without really studying it at all, that is, without employing the thoughts on the subject." "Nothing, in truth," says Dugald Stewart, "has such a tendency to weaken, not only the powers of invention, but the intellectual powers in general, as a habit of extensive and various reading, without reflection. The activity and force of the mind are gradually impaired, in consequence of disuse; and, not unfrequently, all our principles and opinions come to be lost in the infinite multiplicity and discordancy of our acquired ideas. It requires courage, indeed (as Helvetius has remarked), to remain ignorant of those useless subjects which are generally valued; but it is a courage necessary to men who either love the truth, or who aspire to establish a permanent reputation.”

CHAPTER VII.

ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY.

History must be one of the earliest objects of a young lawyer's attention. "The student of Politics or Public Law," says Lord Woodhouselee, "is presumed to have that previous acquaintance with history which it is the object of a course of historical study to communicate; and without such acquaintance his study of Politics will be altogether idle and fruitless;" and Sir William Jones, in his Prefatory Discourse to the speeches of Isæus, has some observations on the necessity of such knowledge to the law student so pertinent. that they are here presented to the reader.

"There is no branch of learning from which a student of the law may receive a more rational pleasure or which seems more likely to prevent his being disgusted with the dry elements of a very complicated science, than the history of the rules and ordinances by which nations eminent for wisdom and illustrious in arts, have regulated their civil polity; nor is this the only fruit which he may expect to reap from a general knowledge of foreign laws, both ancient and modern; for whilst he indulges the liberal curiosity of a scholar, in examining the customs and institutions of men. whose works have yielded him the highest delight, and whose actions have raised his admiration, he will feel the satisfaction of a patriot, in observing the preference due, in most instances, to the laws of his own

country, above those of all other states.

If his first prospects in life give him hopes of becoming a legislator, he may collect many useful hints for the improvement even of that fabric which his ancestors have erected, with infinite exertions of virtue and genius, but which, like all human systems, will ever advance nearer to perfection, and ever fall short of it. In the course of his inquiries he will constantly observe a striking uniformity among all nations, whatever seas and mountains may separate them, or how many ages. soever may have elapsed between the periods of their existence, in those great and fundamental principles which, being clearly deduced from natural reason, are equally diffused over all mankind, and are not subject to alteration by any change of place or time; nor will he fail to mark as striking a diversity in those laws which, proceeding merely from positive institutions, are consequently as various as the wills and fancies of those who enact them."

As the basis of a sound and comprehensive course of historical study may be taken "Tytler's (Lord Woodhouselee's) "Universal History, from the beginning of the world to the beginning of the eighteenth century," — ending, in fact, with the death of Peter the Great, in the year 1724.

An excellent historical Vade Mecum will be found in Keightley's "Outlines of History," a small 12mo. volume of 460 pages. It divides history into three. parts: Ancient History, the Middle Ages, Modern History, the last closing with the year 1815. The author's aim is to give a correct, and, as far as the limits

would permit, a comprehensive epitome of the history of the world, which accuracy of narrative and chronology would render valuable as a book of reference, and in which general views and reflections would remove the dryness inseparable from a mere enumeration of facts.

This excellent performance affords a birds-eye view of the whole field of history, and should be continually beside the student, solicitous to preserve clear and correct notions of so vast a subject. Referring to it may be regarded as revisiting boundaries.

In approaching the important province of Grecian and Roman history, a remark of Mr. Keightley, an excellent elementary writer on each, is worthy of attention. "Man has always been the same, and no portion of his story can be quite devoid of use and interest. That of ancient Greece and Rome is now far more useful than the greater part of modern history, for they were free, and their history is that of the people, not of its rulers. The most important and instructive history to us is that of England; next, that of Greece and Rome; and then, I would say, not that of the great kingdoms and empires, but of the Italian Republics of the middle ages. Why is Oriental history in general so barren of instruction? Simply because it is the history of Khalifs, Shahs and Sultans not of the "People."

If there ever were a subject for an accomplished and philosophical historian of the highest order, it is the history of Greece; regard being had to the special character and circumstances of the people, the scope

and object of their institutions, and the nature of that evidence on which the historian must rely. Such an historian has been found, to the credit of our own age and country, in Mr. Grote. Completely immersed, so to speak, in his subject, he has made it, with all the devotion of ancient genius and determination, the patient labor of a life. To an imagination susceptible enough for sympathy with all that is beautiful, he unites a thoroughly independent, critical and philosophical temperwith a strength of purpose which have enabled him at length to accomplish his object. A long interval may elapse before we see, either here or on the continent, an effort made to write another history of Greece, on the same scale and with the same pretensions. Dr. William Smith, an able and laborious scholar, states that his own studies have led him over the ground traversed by Mr. Grote; and having carefully weighed his opinions, and tested his statements by a reference to his authorities, he has been in almost all cases compelled to adopt his conclusions even when in opposition to generally received opinions and prejudices. Dr. Smith does not scruple to say even that Mr. Grote's work forms as great an epoch in the study of the history of Greece, as Niebuhr's in that of Rome,-and that his contributions to historical science are some of the most valuable that have been made within the present generation. One remark, however, it is proper to make, that this distinguished writer appears to be a disciple of M. Comte; whose cardinal doctrine of the "three successive stages of the human mind in reference to scientific study, the Theological, the Metaphysical, and