Greece, he lingered upon Hymettus; and, gazing over the country around Athens, he said: "I cannot leave the spot the scene now present to my eyes-without repeating the description given by one who was no eyewitness of it. To omit it would be injustice to Athens as well as to Milton;"-and that fine description in the fourth book of Paradise Regained, was aptly rehearsed amid the music of those natural sounds, which are yet heard upon the hills of Attica.*

Another and higher exercise of the Imagination is when it is employed to give us a sense of reality in the knowledge of the actions and the sufferings that history records. The mind may learn the facts of history, and the memory may, at need, recall them; and yet there may be, withal, a most inadequate conception of their truth and reality. How little sense, at best, is there of what the annals of the world tell of suffering humanity! We read or hear, for instance, of a battle, and the numbers of those who have fallen in it; and, after a cold calculation, we think it a large or small proportion; and it makes about as much impression on us as any other statistics might. No sympathy is touched by these aggregates. The intellect calmly comprehends the facts, but the imagination is not astir to give them reality in our minds. It is comparatively a recent event in history-the dreadful famine in which thousands of the Genoese perished—when, in 1799, the French army

* Quoted in substance from "Greece, Pictorial, Descriptive, and Historical, by Christopher Wordsworth, DD., p. 31." Milton's words as he turned from this glorious promise were "Turpe enim existimabam, dum mei cives de libertate dimicarent, me, animi causa, otiose peregrinari." W. B. R.

LECTURE X.

RICHARD THE THIRD-HENRY THE EIGHTH.

The character of Edward the Fourth-His death-Richard's usurpation-Its character of intrigue and violence-The princes in the Tower-Attempted vindications--Their inefficacy -Sir Thomas More-Richard's deformity, mental and physical -Effect of personal deformity-Commanding intellect of the king-Power of will-No sympathy-No repentance-Contrast of Macbeth-Richard's dream-The last of the PlantagenetsThe Tudor kings-Henry the Eighth-The progress of society and government-Henry's reign nearly contemporary with Shakspeare-The play of Henry the Eighth history-Wolsey's character-Catharine of Arragon-Wolsey's fall and death— The approaching Reformation-Henry's character the worst in history-His death-Conclusion..

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LECTURES

ON

ENGLISH HISTORY.

LECTURE I.-INTRODUCTORY.*

On the Study of History.

Shakspeare's Chronicle-Plays-Legendary history: King Lear-Roman and Saxon: Cymbeline and Macbeth-Nature of the subject generally-Imaginative history defined-Not historical romance— Power of Imagination in historical painting-Archbishop Whateley's analysis-Lord Bacon's idea of dramatic poetry-Milton's Vision of Greece, in Paradise Regained-Sense of reality-Famines as described in history and poetry-Genoa in 1799-Ghent in the fourteenth century-Philip Van Artavelde-Archdeacon HareRemote and obscure legends-Reality too distinct-Images and memories of the dead-Effect of travel in the Holy Land-Volney -Written historical painting-Charles Lamb-Belshazzar's Feast -Washington Allston-Poetical history of the Bible-The reputed philosophy of history-Lingard and Hume-Arnold-Tragic poetry -Sir Walter Scott-Funerals actual and picturesque-HogarthHume's accidental theory-Outline of Shakspeare's historiesNovelty of the subject of this lecture.

Ir is my purpose to explain to you the nature of the course which I have announced, and to present some considerations respecting the study of history.

* Delivered in the College Hall of the University of Pennsylvania, December 8th, 1846.

The subject of these lectures is that portion of modern history which is illustrated by Shakspeare's historical drama. The earliest of the reigns thus illustrated is that of King John; the latest is that of Henry the Eighth : and between these, are Richard the Second, Henry the Fourth, the Fifth, the Sixth, and Richard the Third. This is a series, it will be observed, which carries us back into the agitated turmoil of the Middle Ages, and leads us on to the later form of social and political life in that period of history, which, to distinguish it from the mediæval, has been called the "modern of the modern." In these "Chronicle-Plays," as they are styled, there is comprehended the story of three eventful centuries-the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth—broken, indeed, by some considerable intervals of time. I will endeavour in the lectures partially to notice those intervals; and I propose to extend my subject into a more remote antiquity, by taking the tragedy of King Lear as illustrative of the legendary times, and Cymbeline and Macbeth, of the Roman and Saxon periods, respectively.

The nature of this subject, renders these lectures literary as well as historical; and they must combine the study of those two high departments of human thought, -poetry and history. Now I desire to say, at the outset, that I have sought this combination, not so much as a means of relieving the severity of historical study and making it more attractive, as because I have a deep conviction, that Poetry has a precious power of its own for the preservation of historical truth; that it can so revivify the past-can put such life in it- -as to make it imperishable. I have it greatly at heart to carry this deep conviction of mine into your minds, and hope to be

able to show, if not by argument in this lecture, at least by actual evidence in those that follow, how a great poet may be, at the same time, a great historian.

Before going further with the subject of my lecture, let me take two or three minutes to prevent some misapprehensions, which might otherwise occur. While there may be a legitimate and valuable service of the faculty of imagination in the cause of history, there is certainly a great deal that is utterly spurious and deceptive, especially in the shape of historical novels, among which the few excellent stand distinguished from a multitude that are worthless. I have no occasion to refer to them, and wish to be understood as treating my subject altogether apart from them.

Again, when I state that the imagination may minister to the knowledge of history, I certainly do not mean to say, that the poetic or dramatic form is better than any other form of history, or, indeed, to make any kind of comparison between them. There is in each its own peculiar value; and so vast is the range of history, that it needs them all: it gives ample duty to every one who labours to save the memory of the past—whether it be he who zealously collects authentic documents, or pores over time-worn inscriptions, or gathers unwritten traditions— whether it be annalist, or chronicler, or biographer, or historian. I allude to these various functions, not in the way of comparison, but, on the contrary, to show that no disparagement of them is to be understood, when I assert the use of the imagination in the study of history.

Let me premise one other remark—that in employing the term "Imagination,” I mean not such a faculty of the mind as gives birth to the common works of