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Letters On The Study and Use Of History / By the late Right Honorable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke
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Qf the S T U D Y of H I S T O R Y.

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thousand seven hnndred and two, and triumphed,not over Asiatic troops, but over the vétéranarmies of France , The Roman had on his íìdegenius and expérience cultivated by study : theBriton had genius improved by expérience, andno more. The fìrít therefore is not an exampleofwhat study can do alone ; but the lutter is anexample of what' genius and expérience can dowithout study. They can do much , to be sure,when the first is given in a superior degree. Butsucli examples are very rare : and when theyhappen, it will be still true, that they would hâvehad fewer bîemisties, and would hâve corne nearerto the perfection of priva te and public virtue, inail the arts of peace and achievements of war, ifthe views of fucli men had been enlarged, andtheir sentiments ennobled, by acquiring that castof thought, artd that temper of mi n d , which willgrow n p and become habituai in every man whoappîies himfelfearly to the study of history, as wellas to the study of philofophy, with the intentionof being wifer and better, without the affectationof being more learned.

1 he temper of the mind is formed, and a certainturn given to our ways of thinking; in a word, theseeds ot that moral character which cannot whollyalter the natural character, but may correct the eviland improve the good that is in it, or do the verycontrary, are sown betimes, and much sooner thanis cornmonly supposed. It is equally certain, thatwe íhall gather or not gather expérience, be thebetter or the worfe for tliis expérience, when

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