I know how much history can instruct us and how necessary it is to know it; but it requires much ingenuity to be able to draw from it any rules for individual conduct. Those who know politics only through books will be often reminded of those lines of Corneille, which observe that examples will seldom suffice for our guidance, as it often happens that one person perishes by the very expedient which has proved the salvation of another. _Les exemples recens suffiraient pour m'instruire_ _Si par l'exemple seul on devait se conduire;_ _Mais souvent l'un se perd où l'autre s'est sauvé,_ _Et par où l'un périt, un autre est conservé._ Henry VIII., the tyrant of his parliament, his ministers and his wives, of consciences and purses, lived and died peaceably. Charles I. perished on the scaffold. Margaret of Anjou in vain waged war in person a dozen times with the English, the subjects of her husband, while William III. drove James II. from England without a battle. In our days we have seen the royal family of Persia murdered, and strangers upon the throne. To look at events only, history seems to accuse Providence, and fine moral fables justify it. It is clear that both the useful and agreeable may be discovered in them, however exclaimed against by those who are neither the one nor the other. Let them talk on, and let us read Homer and Ovid, as well as Titus Livius and Rapin de Thoyras. Taste induces preferences and fanaticism exclusions. The arts are united, and those who would separate them know nothing about them. History teaches us what we are--fable what we ought to be. _Tous les arts sont amis, ainsi qu ils sont divins;_ _Qui veut les séparer est loin de les connaître._ _L'histoire nous apprend ce que sont les humains,_ _La fable ce qu ils doivent être._ FACTION. _On the Meaning of the Word._ The word "faction" comes from the Latin "_facere_"; it is employed to signify the state of a soldier at his post, on duty (_en faction_), squadrons or troops of combatants in the circus; green, blue, red, and white factions. The acceptation in which the term is generally used is that of a seditious party in the state. The term "party" in itself implies nothing that is odious, that of faction is always odious. A great man, and even a man possessing only mediocrity of talent, may easily have a party at court, in the army, in the city, or in literature. A man may have a party in consequence of his merit, in consequence of the zeal and number of his friends, without being the head of a party. Marshal Catinat, although little regarded at court, had a large party in the army without making any effort to obtain it. A head of a party is always a head of a faction; such were Cardinal Retz, Henry, duke of Guise, and various others. A seditious party, while it is yet weak and has no influence in the government, is only a faction.