g
into or mutually affecting each other, and yet all conspiring with
more or less efficacy to bring about a general result, were exhibited
in the most lucid and masterly manner. The great causes which have
contributed to form the elements of modern society--the decaying
civilization of Rome--the irruption of the northern nations--the
prostration and degradation of the conquered people--the revival of
the military spirit with the private wars of the nobles--the feudal
system and institution of chivalry--the crusades, and revival of
letters following the capture of Constantinople by the Turks--the
invention of printing, and consequent extension of knowledge to the
great body of the people--the discovery of the compass, and, with it,
of America, by Columbus, and doubling of the Cape of Good Hope by
Vasco de Gama--the discovery of gunpowder, and prodigious change
thereby effected in the implements of human destruction--are all there
treated in the most luminous manner, and, in general, with the justest
discrimination. The vast agency of general causes upon the progress of
mankind now became apparent: unseen powers, like the deities of Homer
in the war of Troy, were seen to mingle at every stop with the tide of
sublunary affairs; and so powerful and irresistible does their agency,
when once revealed, appear, that we are perhaps now likely to fall
into the opposite extreme, and to ascribe too little to individual
effort or character. Men and nations seem to be alike borne forward on
the surface of a mighty stream, which they are equally incapable of
arresting or directing; and, after surveying the vain and impotent
attempts of individuals to extricate themselves from the current, we
are apt to exclaim with the philosopher,[16] "He has dashed with his
oar to hasten the cataract; he has waved with his fan to give speed to
the winds."

A nearer examination, however, will convince every candid enquirer,
that individual character exercises, if not a paramount, yet a very
powerful influence on human affairs. Whoever investigates minutely any
period of history will find, on the one hand, that general causes
affecting the whole of society are in constant operation; and on the
other, that these general causes themselves are often set in motion,
or directed in their effects, by particular men. Thus, of what
efficacy were the constancy of Pitt, the foresight of Burke, the arm
of Nelson, the wisdom of Wellington, the genius of Wellesley