acquired
from thence a history, a statistic of the human mind; and if no one has
been able to tell us what it is, we have at least learned how it acts,
and how we ought to act to strengthen its justice and extend its range.

Was not the study of astronomy for a long time directed to the dreams of
astrology? Gassendi himself began to investigate it with that view; and
when science cured him of the prejudices of superstition, he repented
that he so openly declared his conversion, because, he said, many
persons formerly studied astronomy to become astrologers, and he now
perceived that they ceased to learn astronomy, since he had condemned
astrology. Who then can prove to us that, without the restlessness of
anticipation which had led men to seek the future in the stars, the
science, by which today our ships are directed, would ever have reached
its present perfection?

It is thus that we shall ever find, in the labours of man, one half
fruitless, by the side of another moiety profitable; we shall then no
longer condemn the curiosity which leads to knowledge; we shall
acknowledge that, if the human mind often wanders in its path, if it has
not always selected the most direct road, it has finally arrived, by the
necessity of its nature, at the discovery of important truths; but, with
progressive enlightenment, we shall endeavour not to lose time, to go
straight to the end by concentrating our strength on fruitful inquiries
and profitable results; and we shall soon convince ourselves that what
man cannot do is valueless, and that he can achieve all that is
necessary.

The application of this idea to history will soon remove the difficulty
which its uncertainty raised at the outset. For example, it is of little
consequence to us to know the exact personal appearance or the precise
day of the birth of Constantine; to ascertain what particular motives or
individual feelings may have influenced his determination or conduct on
any given occasion; to be acquainted with all the details of his wars
and victories in the struggles with Maxentius or Licinius: these minor
points concern the monarch alone; and the monarch exists no longer. The
anxiety some scholars display in hunting them out is merely a
consequence of the interest which attaches to great names and important
reminiscences. But the results of the conversion of Constantine, his
administrative system, the political and religious principles which he
established in his emp