y
as little fliall vve content ourselves to drndge likegrammarians and critics, thaï others may be ableto study with greater eafe and profit, like philo-sophers and statesmen: as little siiall vve affect theílendcr merit of becoming gréât scholars at theexpenfe of groping ail our lives in the dark mazesof antiquity. Ail these mifìake the true driít ofstudy, and the true use of history. Nature gaveus curiofuy to excite the industry of our minds-,but Ihe never intended it slrould be ruade theprincipal , inuch léss the fole , object of theirapplication. The true and proper object of thisapplication is a constant hnprovement in privateand in public virtue. An application to any study,that tends neither directly n or indirectly to inakeus better men and better citizens, is at bestbutaispecious and ingénions fort of idlenefs, to use anexpression of Tillotson : and the knowledgevve acquire by it is a creditable kind of ignorance,nothing more. This creditable kind of ignoranceis, in nry opinion, .the vvhole benesit vvhich thegenerality of men, even of the most learned,reapfront the study of history: and yet the study ofhistory feems to me , of allother, the most properto train us up to private and public virtue.
Your lordOtip may very vvell be ready by thistime, and aster fo much bol d censure on rny part,to afk me, what then is the true use of history ?in what respects it may serve to make us betterand wifer ? and what method is to be puríued inthe study of it, for attaining these gréât ends?I will answer you by quoting what I hâve read