The superfluous and the frivolous
occupy the place of what is essential and solid, or at least so overload
and darken it that we must sail with them in a sea of trifles to get to
firm land. Those who only value the philosophical part of history fall
into an opposite extreme; they judge of what has been done by that which
should be done; while the others always decide on what should be done by
that which has been: the first are the dupes of their reasoning, the
second of the facts which they mistake for reasoning. We should not
separate two things which ought always to go in concert, and mutually
lend an aid, _reason and example_! Avoid equally the contempt of some
philosophers for the science of facts, and the distaste or the
incapacity which those who confine themselves to facts often contract
for whatever depends on pure reasoning. True and solid philosophy should
direct us in the study of history, and the study of history should give
perfection to philosophy." Such was the enlightened opinion, as far back
as at the beginning of the seventeenth century, of the studious
chancellor of France, before the more recent designation of
_Philosophical History_ was so generally received, and so familiar on
our title-pages.

From the moment that the Florentine secretary conceived the idea that
the history of the Roman people, opening such varied spectacles of human
nature, served as a point of comparison to which he might perpetually
recur to try the analogous facts of other nations and the events passing
under his own eye, a new light broke out and ran through the vast
extents of history. The maturity of experience seemed to have been
obtained by the historian in his solitary meditation. Livy in the
grandeur of Rome, and Tacitus in its fated decline, exhibited for
Machiavel a moving picture of his own republics--the march of destiny in
all human governments! The text of Livy and Tacitus revealed to him many
an imperfect secret--the fuller truth he drew from the depth of his own
observations on his own times. In Machiavel's "Discourses on Livy" we
may discover the foundations of our _Philosophical History_.

The example of Machiavel, like that of all creative genius, influenced
the character of his age, and his history of Florence produced an
emulative spirit among a new dynasty of historians.

The Italian historians have proved themselves to be an extraordinary
race, for they devoted their days to the composition of historica