The history of religion should occupy a conspicuous place in the historian's studies. In the folios of the Bollandists, no inconsiderable portion of the scanty records of the civil history of the period are to be found. A full and patient study of the Roman Catholic creed and polity in their rise and development, is necessary for the effectual employment of the knowledge thus acquired; and it is needless to say how many other creeds and systems must be studied by the historian of Britain. By observing its mere results on the outward history of a people, the inquirer will never know the real influence of any system of religious tenets. A brief survey shows us the outward demonstrations. But to be acquainted with the character of the internal impulses of any religious creed, to see how the fire glows and radiates within the bosom of the votary, we must study the vital elements of the creed itself with industry and with zeal. The language and literature of the country have already been alluded to. The state of the arts at different times must be carefully watched and explained. To accomplish this task, the historian should possess a wide knowledge of the principles and practice of art: not that conventional knowledge which teaches him how to distinguish from all that are below them those efforts which are entitled to the approbation of the fastidious, but the catholic spirit, which enables the mind fully to estimate progress before perfection is reached. All the departments of the historian's knowledge are more or less blended with each other. From the sixth century downwards, for several ages, the coinage of the realm only marks the state of the arts or serves to adjust disputed chronologies: gradually, however, the historian feels it becoming involved with more complex elements connected with the state of society, and at last the great question of the currency and the monetary system of the country has to be grappled with. Here the whole field of political economy is opened up. It is needless to say, that the historian, especially he who treats of a people in any degree civilized, must be thoroughly imbued with political economy. The state of manufactures and of the sciences should not be neglected. A history of Britain during the nineteenth century, containing no account of the triumphs of the steam engine, or of the progress of railway engineering, would give a very imperfect view of the living progress of the nation. The history of the early period would be more satisfactory, if it informed us when the pump and the potter's wheel were first used in Britain. Closely akin to this subject is the progress of agriculture, which, however, is a matter simpler and more easy of attainment than many of the historian's other objects of inquiry.