The thought has been deemed so profound as to give rise to some discussion respecting its origin. As a definition, however, the maxim is liable to serious objection. It presents, rather, the uses, or the chief use, of history, than the essential idea. The individual memory may also be said to be _philosophy teaching by example_; but then it becomes only another name for that experience which is but the application of remembered facts to the guidance of the future life. So history may be called THE WORLD'S MEMORY--the memory of a race--of a nation--of a collective humanity. It is in vain, then, for us to say what facts, in themselves, _ought_ to constitute history. The matter is settled. It is not what any philosophy, or any theology, or any science of history may deem _worthy_ of remembrance, but what has actually been thus remembered, or is now so entering into the common mind as to form the ground of memory in the future. The parallelism in this respect between the individual and this national, or common mind, is striking and complete. The true history of each man is not so much what he has done, as what he has thought and felt. The thought is the _form_ of the feeling, and the act merely the outward testimony by which both are revealed. It is not, therefore, every act, or _doing_, which enters into his history--not even those which have formed the greater part of his constant daily exercise--but simply such as for any reason have made the deepest impression on the inner man, and which, therefore, stand out in the records of his memory when all else has perished. What this chronicles is the man's veritable history. However important other parts of his conduct may appear externally, this is his true spiritual life. It is the record, the imperishable record of that which has reached and stirred the depths of his soul, while other acts, and other events, have had their lodgment only in the outward un-emotional existence. Such memory, or such history, may not be what it ought to have been; it may not be the measure of accountability. All that we insist upon is the fact, that, whether right or wrong, it is the true history of the individual, because it is his real life. But then there are degrees of memory. It is not always, in all its parts, either present to the mind, or capable of recall at will. Still, what has once in this manner truly _affected_ his soul, has by this become a part of it, and can, therefore, never be lost. Like some old historical record it may be laid aside for a season, but sooner or later must it come forth, and claim its place as belonging to that individual personality into which it enters as a constituent and inseparable portion.