DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5827#0018
Viii PREFACE.
for mental digestion, when we look at the strange re-
volutions often produced by the mere blind passions
of men. A lesson is read well worth our study, when
we trace the remote results of causes where there
has appeared scarcely any relation between the cause
and the effect. We take a far profounder insight into
the almost infinitely diversified field of human actions
and of human motives, and peer with a surer scrutiny
into the mystical depths which lie profoundly and darkly
beneath the surface, when we examine history but as the
great index of humanity, and trace through the long
lapse of ages the mighty ends which past events both
dark and bright—those alike which have won our ad-
miration, and excited our awe — have concurred to
produce. Battles and massacres are frightful things
to contemplate, but their ultimate effects upon the
social condition are often signal and permanent.
Society, under certain modifications, assumes at times
its tone and aspect from circumstances, that, in them-
selves, simply considered, present the most repelling
features with which the passions or vices of men can
invest them. As from the ashes which strew the
forest that has been desolated by fire, a fresher and
more exuberant growth arises, so from the devastation
for mental digestion, when we look at the strange re-
volutions often produced by the mere blind passions
of men. A lesson is read well worth our study, when
we trace the remote results of causes where there
has appeared scarcely any relation between the cause
and the effect. We take a far profounder insight into
the almost infinitely diversified field of human actions
and of human motives, and peer with a surer scrutiny
into the mystical depths which lie profoundly and darkly
beneath the surface, when we examine history but as the
great index of humanity, and trace through the long
lapse of ages the mighty ends which past events both
dark and bright—those alike which have won our ad-
miration, and excited our awe — have concurred to
produce. Battles and massacres are frightful things
to contemplate, but their ultimate effects upon the
social condition are often signal and permanent.
Society, under certain modifications, assumes at times
its tone and aspect from circumstances, that, in them-
selves, simply considered, present the most repelling
features with which the passions or vices of men can
invest them. As from the ashes which strew the
forest that has been desolated by fire, a fresher and
more exuberant growth arises, so from the devastation