the hair-splitting and refining the quackery and fanaticism of the one-the haste, the rashness, the illogical intemperance, of the other. Even Plato, with all his dreams, seemed to me more conclusive, than these, his latest, imitators. Left then by my guides upon this vast and illimitable plain-awe-struck and saddened by my own doubts, I resolved, at least, not to despair,-for suddenly I felt that I was not alone! My books were deaf and sealed, but round me was the Universe, and the life of things became my teacher!-Yes-not from metaphysics, but from analogy I rebuilt up my crumbling faith, and became a Philosopher to myself. Happy he whose doubts resolve themselves as mine did, into that devout, confiding, immaterial hope, which seems to suit best our limited lore below-to support most our virtue, and exalt our souls. Some men there are of stern minds, of long-practised self-denial, of habits whose austerity has become a pleasure-who may be both good and happy without a belief in an Hereafter. Lowlier than these, I own

VOL. II.

M

myself one amongst the herd. And never did I feel assured of the strength of my own heart, and trustful to subdue its human errors and its hourly sorrows, until I saw bright before me the birthright and Eden of Immortality. There is a Philosophy, attempted, it is true, but yet unattained--a Philosophy which this century ought to produce out of the ashes of the Materialism of the last--it is the Philosophy of Faith!"

CONVERSATION THE SIXTH.

THE HISTORY CONCLUDED-PROGRESS FROM MORALS TO HISTORYA STATE OF DOUBT MOST FAVOURABLE TO THE STUDY OF THE PAST -PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORIANS DANGEROUS-HUME AND GIBBON THE ADVANTAGES OF TACITUS AND POLYBIUS IN ACTUAL EXPERIENCE BOLINGBROKE THE FIRST ENGLISH UTILITARIAN-HISTORY THE ACCUSER OF MANKIND-THE GREEKS-PORTRAIT OF THEMISTOCLES-PATRIOTISM AND PHILANTHROPY-THE ERRORS OF OLD THE DIVINE HOPE OF THE FUTURE.

9

"SLOWLY and reluctantly," continued L(resuming the next day the thread of his intellectual history,) "did I turn from the consideration of motives to that of actions-from Morals to History. Volney has said, in his excellent lectures, that the proper state of mind for the examination of history, is that in which we ❝ hold the judgment in suspense.' This truth is evident; yet they who allow the doctrine when

couched in the above phrase, might demur if the phrase were a little altered, and instead of a suspension of judgment, we spoke of a state of doubt. It is true! in this state, a state of 'investigating doubt,' history should be studied. In doubt, all the faculties of the mind are aroused—we sift, we weigh, we examine-every page is a trial to the energies of the understanding. But confidence is sleepy and inert. If we make up our minds beforehand to believe all we are about to read, the lecture glides down the memory without awakening one thought by the way. We may be stored with dates and legends; we may be able to conclude our periods by a fable about Rome; but we do not feel that we have reasoned as well as read. Our minds may be fuller, but our intellects are not sharper than they were before; we have studied, but not investigated:--to what use investigation to those who are already persuaded? There is the same difference in the advantage of history to him who weighs, because he mistrusts, and to him who discriminates nothing, because he believes all,

as there is between the value of a common-place book and a philosophical treatise. The first may be more full of facts than the latter, but the latter is facts turned to use. It is this state of rational doubt which a metaphysical course of study naturally induces. It is, therefore, after the investigation of morals, that we should turn to history. Nor is this all the advantage which we derive from the previous study of morals. History were, indeed, an old almanack to him who knows neither what is right nor what is wrong; where governments have been wise, where erroneous. History, regarded in the light of political utility, is, to quote Volney again, ‘a vast collection of moral and social experiments, which mankind make involuntarily and very expensively on themselves.' But we must know the principles of the science before we can apply the experiments."

A. And yet, while the real uses of history are philosophical, a mere narrator of facts is often far better than a philosophical historian.

L. Because it is better to reflect ourselves