--that, as the planet varies with the atmosphere which
surrounds it, so each new generation varies from the last, because it
inhales as its atmosphere the accumulated experience and knowledge of
the whole past of the world. These things form the spiritual air which
we breathe as we grow; and, in the infinite multiplicity of elements
of which that air is now composed, it is forever matter of conjecture
what the minds will be like which expand under its influence.

From the England of Fielding and Richardson to the England of Miss
Austen, from the England of Miss Austen to the England of railways and
free trade, how vast the change! Yet perhaps Sir Charles Grandison
would not seem so strange to us now as one of ourselves will seem to
our great-grandchildren. The world moves faster and faster; and the
difference will probably be considerably greater.

The temper of each new generation is a continual surprize. The Fates
delight to contradict our most confident expectations. Gibbon believed
that the era of conquerors was at an end. Had he lived out the full
life of man, he would have seen Europe at the feet of Napoleon. But a
few years ago we believed the world had grown too civilized for war,
and the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park was to be the inauguration of a
new era. Battles bloody as Napoleon's are now the familiar tale of
every day; and the arts which have made greatest progress are the
arts of destruction. What next? We may strain our eyes into the future
which lies beyond this waning century; but never was conjecture more
at fault. It is blank darkness, which even the imagination fails to
people.

What, then, is the use of history, and what are its lessons? If it can
tell us little of the past, and nothing of the future, why waste our
time over so barren a study?

First, it is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of
right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall,
but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every
false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust
or vanity, the price has to be paid at last, not always by the chief
offenders, but paid by some one. Justice and truth alone endure and
live. Injustice and falsehood may be long-lived, but doomsday comes at
last to them, in French revolutions and other terrible ways.

That is one lesson of history. Another is, that we should draw no
horoscope; that we should expect little, for wha