wards, occurred. Some historical subject happened, in one of those hours, to excite my interest in its perusal, my thoughts were committed (as was always my custom,) to paper, the subject was pursued with eagerness, and proceeded, until interrupted by the urgent and necessitous calls of official business, which continued so long, that at the expiration of them, the interest which had been originally excited was worn out or weakened; the subject had been thrown aside, and was never resumed. Again and again the perusal of some other historical works originally excited similar interests,—were followed by similar pursuits, similar interruptions, and at length similar terminations ensued. The subjects were never resumed. - SIR GEORGE HARRISON, Fragments and Scraps of History, 1834.

I scarce ever met with any Historian who does not write true history, if you will take an account of him from his Preface, and not be too nice in examining his Book.-Reflexions upon Learning, &c., by A GENTLEMAN, 1756.

It behoves us ever to bear in mind, that while actions are always to be judged by the immutable standard of right and wrong, the judgement which we pass upon men must be qualified by considerations of age, country, situation, and other incidental circumstances; and it will then be found, that he who is most charitable in his judgement

is generally the least unjust.-SOUTHEY, Book of the Church.

The corrupt heart is not conscious of all its own wickedness: the ungodly man may not know half the evil which enters into his own motives, and can not discover that he is really actuated by dislike of God and the things of God, when he seems to intend something quite different.

But in Holy Writ actions are represented to us in their true colors, as they are to God, and not as they appear to men: and in imputing sin to man, the real causes of actions are weighed in estimating motives, not the objects which might be assigned as reasons; and judgement is pronounced upon the moral quality of the act accordingly.

This makes the lessons which are to be learned from the Bible History, in the way of example and warning, so much the more solemn. In other histories we have the lesson of human experience, with human judgement exercised upon it. In the Bible History we have the same lesson of experience, with the judgement of God upon it: and God's judgement reaches farther both forwards and backwards than man's.-R. HUSSEY, B.D., Sermon.

There is nothing so difficult as to get at historical facts. Half of the truth is never known at all, the actors carry it with them to the

grave. Of what remains, much comes to light

long after the event, or is known but in a vague and disputable way. - Saturday Review, June 1859.

Complete histories on a moderate scale, not too meagre, and by first-rate hands, are just what are wanted at the present day. There are plenty of excellent books on particular periods, delightful to read, and covering perhaps some half-dozen years in a volume. Again, there are plenty of skeleton histories, more or less unsatisfactory, most of them meagre and arbitrary in their choice. of facts, and altogether below criticism in point of style. * * It must be allowed that there is not much fame, and still less literary enjoyment, to be reaped from such thoroughly useful undertakings. Saturday Review, August 1866.

I will now thank you, gentlemen, most respectfully for your attention, and only entreat you to read History, not with that total disbelief of it which Sir Robert Walpole is said to have expressed when a volume of History was offered him for his amusement, after his retirement from public life; but with some mistrust and reserve, recollecting how difficult it is to develope the motives of human conduct, how easily the spirit of party insinuates itself into the Historian's mind, and colors his narrative; and how almost impossible it is for an unprofessional writer to appreciate fully the effect. of diseases of the body upon the minds and actions of men. - SIR H. HALFORD, Essays.

I doubt whether my professional zeal and taste may not have been damped and corrupted by an indulgence in other pursuits of a literary kind; while I feel that the desire of full employment and riches has been much abated by my experience, or at least my opinion, — that the tranquillity and leisure of a private life lead much more certainly to happiness than the agitation and splendor of distinguished professional rank.-SIR WILLIAM LAWRENCE, Letter in 1812; Pall Mall Gazette, July 1867.

VIII. RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.

R

ELIGION had no connection with morality

among the Greek and Roman heathens; and this was one main cause of their degeneracy and corruption. Religion consisted with them merely in the observance of certain rites, and the performance of sacrifices; and men were left to the schools of Philosophy, there to choose their system of morals, and learn a rule of life: and in those schools the blind led the blind. Some of the bedarkened teachers affirmed that there were no Gods; others, that if there were any, they took no thought for this world, neither regarded the affairs of men. By some the highest happiness was placed in sensual gratification; by others, in the practice of a cold stern virtue, of which pride was the principle, and selfishness the root, miserable condition of society, in which the evildisposed had nothing to restrain them but the fear of human laws; and the good, nothing to console them under the keenest sorrows which man is born to; no hope beyond this transitory

a