Letters on the Study and Use of History |
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Page 3
... must be content with fuch an imperfect sketch , as I am able to fend you at present in this letter . THE motives that carry men to the study of history are different . Some intend , if fuch as they may be said to study , nothing more ...
... must be content with fuch an imperfect sketch , as I am able to fend you at present in this letter . THE motives that carry men to the study of history are different . Some intend , if fuch as they may be said to study , nothing more ...
Page 5
... must be owned with gratitude , have done , but not later , I think , than about the time of the refurrection of letters . When works of importance are preffing , generals them- felves may take up the pick - axe and the fpade ; but in ...
... must be owned with gratitude , have done , but not later , I think , than about the time of the refurrection of letters . When works of importance are preffing , generals them- felves may take up the pick - axe and the fpade ; but in ...
Page 6
... must be as indif- ferent as I am to common cenfure or ap- probation , to avow a thorough contempt for the whole business of these learned lives ; for all the researches into antiquity , for all the fyftems of chronology and hiftory ...
... must be as indif- ferent as I am to common cenfure or ap- probation , to avow a thorough contempt for the whole business of these learned lives ; for all the researches into antiquity , for all the fyftems of chronology and hiftory ...
Page 9
... must begin at the beginning of them : the ex- preffion may be odd , but it is fignificant . We must examine fcrupulously and indif- ferently the foundations on which they lean ; and when we find thefe either faintly pro- bable , or ...
... must begin at the beginning of them : the ex- preffion may be odd , but it is fignificant . We must examine fcrupulously and indif- ferently the foundations on which they lean ; and when we find thefe either faintly pro- bable , or ...
Page 32
... hiftorians is to keep good company : many of them were excellent men , and those who were not fuch have taken care however to appear fuch in their writings . 4 It It must be therefore of great ufe to pre- pare 32 LETTER II .
... hiftorians is to keep good company : many of them were excellent men , and those who were not fuch have taken care however to appear fuch in their writings . 4 It It must be therefore of great ufe to pre- pare 32 LETTER II .
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Common terms and phrases
affiftance againſt againſt France allies almoſt Auftria becauſe cafe cauſe CHARLES the fecond circumſtances confequences courſe crown defign defire Dutch emperor England eſtabliſhed Europe faid fame favour fecurity feemed ferve feven fhall fhew fide fign fince firſt fome foon French ftate ftrength ftudy fubject fucceffion fuccefs fuch fufficient fupported fure fyftem grand alliance greateſt himſelf hiſtory houſe of Auſtria houſe of Bourbon increaſed inftance intereft king of France king of Spain laft laſt leaſt lefs LEWIS the fourteenth lord lordſhip Low Countries meaſure minifters monarchy moſt muſt nation neceffary obferve occafion oppoſed ourſelves paffed paffions party peace PHILIP pleaſure poffeffion preſent pretenfions prince purpoſe queen racters raiſed reaſon refpect ſay ſeveral ſhall ſhe ſhort ſhould ſome Spaniſh ſpeak ſpirit ſtate ſtill ſtudy of hiſtory ſuch thefe themſelves theſe thofe thoſe thouſand fix hundred thouſand ſeven hundred tion treaty treaty of Utrecht uſe whilſt whole
Popular passages
Page 61 - ... disastrous campaigns, we saw every scene of the war full of action. All those wherein he appeared, and many of those wherein he was not then an actor — but abettor, however, of their action — were crowned with the most triumphant success. I take with pleasure this opportunity of doing justice to that great man, whose faults I knew, whose virtues I admired, and whose memory, as the greatest general and as the greatest minister that our country or perhaps any other has produced, I honour.
Page 17 - The reason of this judgment, which I quote from one of Seneca's epistles in confirmation of my own opinion, rests, I think, on this; that when examples are pointed out to us...
Page 29 - There is scarce any folly or vice more epidemical among the sons of men, than that ridiculous and hurtful vanity by which the people of each country are apt to prefer themselves to those of every other; and to make their own customs, and manners, and opinions, the standards of right and wrong, of true and false.
Page 198 - I may say so, of undefiled reason ? Is it not worth our while to approve or condemn, on our own authority, what we receive in the beginning of life on the authority of other men, who were not then better able to judge for us, than we are now to judge for ourselves?
Page 143 - Bodin's pupil, resolves to read all, will not have time, no nor capacity neither, to do any thing else. He will not be able to think, without which it is impertinent to read; nor to act, without which it is impertinent to think. He will assemble materials with much pains, and purchase them at much expense.
Page 186 - Till this happen, the profession of the law will scarce deserve to be ranked among the learned professions ; and whenever it happens, one of the vantage grounds, to which men must climb, is metaphysical, and the other historical knowledge.
Page 12 - There is no need of saying how this passion grows, among civilized nations, in proportion to the means of gratifying it : but let us observe that the same principle of nature directs us as strongly, and more generally as well as more early, to indulge our own curiosity, instead of preparing to gratify that of others.
Page 247 - There is no part of the world from whence we may not admire those planets which roll like ours, in different orbits, round the same central sun; from whence we may not discover an object still more stupendous, that army of fixed stars hung up in the immense space of the universe; innumerable suns, whose beams enlighten and cherish the unknown worlds which roll...
Page 185 - I might instance in other professions the obligation men lie under of applying themselves to certain parts of History; and I can hardly forbear doing it in that of the Law, — in its nature the noblest and most beneficial to mankind, in its abuse and debasement the most sordid and the most pernicious. A lawyer now is nothing more (I speak of ninetynine in a hundred at least...
Page 48 - ... of those who govern or are governed in them, will incline to think, that if the scales can be brought back by a war, nearly, though not exactly, to the point they were at before this...