crimes committed by his knights and great lords never interfere
with his general eulogies of them: the habit of deference and
respect was too strong to be broken, and the facts which he
himself relates to their discredit, appear to have produced on
his mind no impression."
We now enter upon a period which may be called the modern part of modern
history, the more complicated period, in contradistinction to the more
simple state of things which, up to this moment, has occupied the
student's attention. It is impossible to read, without deep regret, the
passage in which Dr Arnold speaks of his intention--"if life and health
be spared him, to enter into minute details; selecting some one country
as the principal subject of his enquiries, and illustrating the lessons
of history for the most part from its particular experience."
He proceeds, however, to the performance of the task immediately before
him. After stating that the great object, the [Greek: teleiotaton
telos], of history is that which most nearly touches the inner life of
civilized man, he pauses for a while at the threshold before he enters
into the sanctuary, and undoubtedly some external knowledge is requisite
before we penetrate into its recesses: we want some dwelling-place, as
it were, for the mind, some local habitation in which our ideas may be
arranged, some topics that may be firmly grasped by the memory, and on
which the understanding may confidently rest; and thus it is that
geography, even with a view to other purposes, must engross, in the
first instance, a considerable share of our attention. The sense in
which Dr Arnold understands a knowledge of geography, is explained in
the following luminous and instructive commentary:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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