And if some tones be false and low,
What are all prayers beneath,

But cries of babes that cannot know

Half the deep thought they breathe?
In his own words we Christ adore,
But angels as we speak
Higher above our meaning soar,
Than we o'er children weak.

POSTSCRIPT.

Becker, in his Organism der Sprache, a work to which I am anxious to acknowledge my obligations, especially in the first part of this lecture, mentions a fact which illustrates in a very interesting manner the views expressed in page 163. "The Abbé Sicard, well known for his successful labours in teaching the deaf and dumb, instructed them, in the use of the sign-language he had invented for them, to make the signs follow in an order corresponding to the sequence of ideas according to the laws of logic; but he speedily observed, that his pupils in their play-hours when they were left to themselves used these signs in an order determined by entirely different laws." See A. W. Schlegel, Observations sur la langue et la literature provençales, p. 27.

IX.

ON HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.

BY THE

REV. C. G. NICOLAY.

HE subjects which I have to introduce to your

THE

notice to day, offer so many points of interest, and extend over such wide and varied fields of inquiry, that to comprehend them within the limits of a lecture is impossible: either the general features must be neglected for the sake of some cherished portion of the detail, or a simple sketch in outline presented, to be filled in with light and shadow, colour and expression, as time and opportunity are afforded.

Considering that, although open to all who may feel an interest in the labours we have undertaken, the lectures of this week are meant to introduce pupils to their future studies, I without hesitation prefer the latter, and shall therefore confine my observations to a brief and very general consideration of the nature of those which I have undertaken to superintend, the mode in which it is proposed to treat them, and the effect which should be produced by them.

To know himself, and to apply that knowledge, is the great duty of man upon earth-could we neither look back, nor forward, this were impossible that therefore which teaches us our origin, may well claim precedence over other subjects. This is the province of History, as its name implies, for though the word anciently might mean the "acquisition of knowledge by research or inquiry;" so far as we are concerned, it is now rerestricted to "the narration of events."

And this will afford us a subject sufficiently comprehensive, for although I should be unwilling to add to this definition, as has been done, "the narration of events real or supposed," because this would include every event, and place fiction on a level with fact; yet, setting aside that which belongs more properly to the region of imagination, and should be classed under the head of Poetry, how much remains! The events of which it treats, stretch through all time, extend to every place, and embrace every person!

History, being the record of events, has been considered capable of two great divisions, sacred and profane; and this mode of treatment might facilitate the knowledge of it, if it were possible to separate the mortal from the immortal part of man, or to exclude the providence of God from any of the affairs of the world. It does perhaps facilitate the knowledge of isolated facts, but it destroys their application.

Sacred History, as applied solely to the direct dealings of God with man by revelation and inspiration, will be taught by one in whose soul its single truthfulness will shine reflected: but the history of the spiritual part of man as visible in his actions— his yearnings after higher than visible things, his retrospective glances at his divine origin, and the consequent fictitious, but still truthful, mythological wonders, which have served for the diversion of folly, and the instruction of wisdom,-fictions false in the events they record, but true in the ideas they would express these are the keys of early history, by which alone the several springs of action can be discovered, and by which meaning can be given to affections and passions otherwise childish, if not inexplicable. Without therefore entering on the details of mythological systems, we shall endeavour to trace their origin and purpose, and thus make the spiritual history of the world run parallel with the profane, and give life and

energy and purpose And this, while it

to the pictures they present. suggests a further division of our subject, by no means constitutes it: the mixture of the imaginative and the reasoning faculties-which, applied to the dim recollections of past ages, have produced the divine genealogies, the metamorphoses, the heroes and demigods of early history-belongs as much to that of nations as of the world, perhaps more. The history of the world in its origin and early progress,

is too simple to be obscured, until the mind's eye had been dimmed and distracted by the uncertain visions which the course of time presented to it.

The division of history into ancient and modern, is more plausible than real; it is, in fact, only relative. History must have a centre, whether it be general or particular, on its oneness depends its application; nor is it possible to find any time when the affairs of the world came to a standstill, and paused, as if for rest, before the action was continued. We cannot, like a play, divide History into acts and scenes; nevertheless there are great divisions marked out for us, in the early history of the world, the rise of all the great empires, and, in later times, the development and operation of great principles; which form leading marks to assist, not only in the recollection, but the application of the events it records.

In the general sketch of the history of mankind, which I shall attempt to offer to our pupils, it will be my endeavour, so to classify and arrange the subject, that this assistance shall not be wanting; while, on the other hand, I shall be careful not to break its continuity.

"The proper study of mankind is man," says the poet; i. e. a general, not a particular study. Undoubtedly, there are parts of History which affect us more nearly than others, especially as relating to the origin and progress of our own nation. But I have the satisfaction to be able to say, that those