e which is our own, of efforts not yet abandoned to
repose, of problems that still entangle the feet and vex the hearts of
men. Every part of it is weighty with inestimable lessons that we
must learn by experience and at a great price, if we know not how to
profit by the example and teaching of those who have gone before us,
in a society largely resembling the one we live in.[26] Its study
fulfils its purpose even if it only makes us wiser, without producing
books, and gives us the gift of historical thinking, which is better
than historical learning.[27] It is a most powerful ingredient in the
formation of character and the training of talent, and our historical
judgments have as much to do with hopes of heaven as public or private
conduct. Convictions that have been strained through the instances and
the comparisons of modern times differ immeasurably in solidity and
force from those which every new fact perturbs, and which are often
little better than illusions or unsifted prejudice.[28]

[Sidenote: A SCHOOL OF OPINION]

[Sidenote: INFLUENCE OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT]

The first of human concerns is religion, and it is the salient feature
of the modern centuries. They are signalised as the scene of
Protestant developments. Starting from a time of extreme indifference,
ignorance, and decline, they were at once occupied with that conflict
which was to rage so long, and of which no man could imagine the
infinite consequences. Dogmatic conviction--for I shun to speak of
faith in connection with many characters of those days--dogmatic
conviction rose to be the centre of universal interest, and remained
down to Cromwell the supreme influence and motive of public policy. A
time came when the intensity of prolonged conflict, when even the
energy of antagonistic assurance, abated somewhat, and the
controversial spirit began to make room for the scientific; and as the
storm subsided, and the area of settled questions emerged, much of
the dispute was abandoned to the serene and soothing touch of
historians, invested as they are with the prerogative of redeeming the
cause of religion from many unjust reproaches, and from the graver
evil of reproaches that are just. Ranke used to say that Church
interests prevailed in politics until the Seven Years' War, and marked
a phase of society that ended when the hosts of Brandenburg went into
action at Leuthen, chanting their Lutheran hymns.[29] That bold
proposition would be disputed e