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The Sceptical Age. David Hume. History of England. Metaphysics. Essay
on Miracles. Robertson. Histories. Gibbon. The Decline and Fall.

THE SCEPTICAL AGE.

History presents itself to the student in two forms: The first is
_chronicle_, or a simple relation of facts and statistics; and the second,
_philosophical history_, in which we use these facts and statistics in the
consideration of cause and effect, and endeavor to extract a moral from
the actions and events recorded. From pregnant causes the philosophic
historian traces, at long distances, the important results; or,
conversely, from the present condition of things--the good and evil around
him--he runs back, sometimes remotely, to the causes from which they have
sprung. Chronicle is very pleasing to read, and the reader may be, to some
extent, his own philosopher; but the importance of history as a study is
found in its philosophy.
As far down as the eighteenth century, almost everything in history
partakes of the nature of chronicle.


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