presented, either by direct statement or brief intimation, in the Lectures. I have not however confined the notes to selections from Dr. Arnold's writings, but have brought them from various sources, as far as I thought they would contribute to historical knowledge and truth, without encumbering the volume. It will readily be understood, that in lectures as copious as these are in historical and biographical allusions, the process of annotation might be carried on to an almost indefinite extent, but I have endeavored to limit the notes in a great measure to such as are of that suggestive character for which the Lectures themselves are distinguished-such as might encourage a love for the study of history and prompt to historical reading. In no department of literature has there been greater advance than in historical science during about the last twenty years, and it is a branch of education well deserving attention, as one of the means of chastening that narrow and spurious nationality which is no more than unsubstantial national vanity— the substitute of ignorance and arrogance for genuine and rational and dutiful patriotism. In preparing this edition, I have had in view its use, not only for the general reader, but also as a text-book in education, especially in our college courses of study. It might be thought that this last purpose would require the introduction of many notes of an explanatory kind for the information of young students; but from such annotation I have in a great measure forborne, and purposely, for two reasons-because it must have become too copious in a work so full of historical allusions, and because the volume can be an appropriate text-book only for advanced students, who have completed an elementary course of history. Besides, it is my belief that many a text-book is now-a-days overloaded with notes, to the positive injury of education: such books seem to be prepared upon a presumption that they are to be taught by men who are either ignorant or indolent, or both, and thus it is that the spirit of oral instruction is deadened by the practice of anticipating much that should be supplied by the teacher. The active intercourse between the mind that teaches and the minds that are taught, which is essential to all true instruction, is often rendered dull by the use of books of such description. I have therefore endeavored to make the notes in this volume chiefly s ggestive, and only incidentally explanatory, and in doing so, it is my belief and hope that I have followed a principle on which the Lectures themselves were written. The introduction of this work as a text-book I regard as important, because, at least so far as my information entitles me to speak, there is no book better calculated to inspire an interest in historical study. That it has this power over the minds of students I can say from experience, which enables me also to add, that I have found it excellently suited to a course of college instruction. By intelligent and enterprising members of a class especially, it is studied as a text-book with zeal and animation. In offering this volume for such use, I am not unaware of the difficulties arising from the fact that our college courses are both limited as to time and crowded with a considerable variety of studies often perhaps too great a variety for sound education. The false academic ambition of making a display of many subjects has the inevitable effect of rendering instruction superficial in such studies as ought to be cultivated thoroughly. I should be sorry, therefore, to be contributing in any way to what may be regarded as an evil and an abuse-the injurious accumulation of subjects of study upon a course that is limited in duration. It is in order to avoid this, that I venture here to suggest an expedient by which instruction in these Lectures may be accomplished advantageously and without embarrassment or conflict with other studies. The student may be made well acquainted with these Lectures by the process of making written abstracts of them, for which the work is, as I have found, peculiarly adapted. Let me, however, fortify this suggestion by something far more valuable than my own opinion or experience—the authority of Dr. Arnold himself as to the value of the method. It will be found in his correspondence that he earnestly advises the making of an abstract of some standard work in history: besides the information gained, "the abstract itself," are his words, "practises you in condensing and giving in your own words what another has said; a habit of great value, as it forces one to think about it, which extracting merely does not. It farther gives a brevity and simplicity to your language, two of the greatest merits which style can have." This method may, it appears to me, be made with advantage a substitute, to a considerable extent, for what is commonly called "original composition" of young writers. It avoids a danger which in that process has probably occurred to the minds of most persons who have had experience and are thoughtfully engaged in that branch of education. The danger I allude to has been wisely and I think not too strongly spoken of as the "immense peril of introducing dishonesty into a pupil's mind, of teaching him to utter phrases which answer to nothing that is actually within him, and do not describe any thing that he has actually seen or imagined." (Lectures on National Education, by the Rev. Prof. Maurice, now of King's College, London.) ter. A few words may be added here, for the general reader as well as the student. In order to receive just impressions from these Lectures it is important to bear in mind one or two of the peculiarly prominent traits of Dr. Arnold's intellectual, or rather moral characThe zeal to combat wrong-to withstand evil-engendered a polemical propensity, which leads him sometimes to speak as if he saw only evil in what may be mixed good and evil. His view of things, therefore, is occasionally both true and false, because onesided and incomplete. Of chivalry, for instance, his mind appears to have dwelt only or chiefly on the dark side-the evils and abuses of it. Conservatism' was to him a symbol of evil, because he thought of it, not as preserving what is good, but a spirit of resistance to all change. Arbitrary power, in any of its forms, was odious to the mind of Arnold, not simply because it creates restraint and subjection, but inasmuch as it retards or prevents improvement of faculties given to be improved. "Half of our virtue," he exclaims, quoting Homer's lines with a bold version, "Half of our virtue is torn away when a man becomes a slave, and the other half goes when he becomes a slave broke loose." The solemn and impassioned utterance of the great living poet, whom Arnold knew in personal converse, would not be too strong to express the feeling with which he looked upon oppression by lawless dominion: "Never may from our souls one truth depart— That an accursed thing it is to gaze On prosperous tyrants with a dazzled eye." Liberty was prized by Arnold, not for its own sake-not as in itself a good, but as a means—a condition of cultivation and improvement, and it became in his eyes a worthless boon, an abused privilege, whenever not dutifully employed for the good of man and the glory of God. Dr. Arnold's opinions must also often be judged of in their relative connection. "It is my nature," he says, "always to attack that evil which seems to me most present." Accordingly, the evil he would most strenuously condemn in one place, or time, or state of things, might elsewhere cease to be the most dangerous, or indeed give place to even an opposite evil. This has an important bearing upon any application of his principles or opinions to various political or social conditions; but be the thoughts and words what they may, there is assurance that they come from a man distinguished for that straightforwardness of purpose and of speech which everywhere and always is a virtue ἐν πάντα δὲ νόμον εὐθύγλωσσος ἀνὴρ προφέρει, Pyth. II. Having spoken of applications of Dr. Arnold's thoughts, I wish to add, that there could be no more unworthy tribute rendered to him than either the careless, unreflecting adoption of his views, or the citing his words as a sanction for opinions that may in other minds be no more than prejudices-formed in ignorance or indifference, and held without earnestness or candor. Such is not the lesson to be learned from the character of one of whom I may say that he could not draw a happy breath in the presence of falsehood, and the master-passion of whose spirit was the love of Law and of Truth. In the arrangement of this volume for the press, I have placed the notes of this edition at the end of each lecture, so that they may not intrude at all upon the text of the lectures, which differ in no other particular from the original, than merely the insertion of numbers for reference to the notes, and a correction of a slight error in a reference to an authority in Lecture VI. To prevent any possibility of error, let it be understood that Dr. Arnold's own notes, few in number, are printed as foot-notes, as in the original edition. The notes of this edition are in all cases referred to by numbers, and are placed after each lecture. For several valuable suggestions and references, I am indebted to the learning and the kindness of the Rev. Professor George Allen, of Delaware College. I mention my obligation, because otherwise silence would bring me the self-reproach for something like unreal display. There is a pleasure too in making such an acknowledgment, especially when, in connection with this volume, it is to one whose earnest scholarship is kindred to that of Arnold himself in several respects, and chiefly in this-the not common combination of philological accuracy with cultivation of modern history and literature. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, April 28, 1845 H. R. |