battle of Benevento; the sad history of the young Conradin, Manfred's nephew-his defeat at Scurgola under the old walls of the Marsian and Pelasgian Alba, his cruel execution, the transferring of his claims to Peter of Aragon, who had married his cousin Constance, Manfred's daughter, the tragedy of the Sicilian vespers, and the enthroning of the Aragoneze monarch in Sicily. All these earlier events, and the extinction subsequently of the elder branch of the house of Anjou; the crimes and misfortunes of queen Joanna, her adoption of the younger branch of the house of Anjou, and the counter adoption of a prince of the house of Aragon by queen Joanna the Second, the new contest between the French and Spanish princes, and the triumph of the latter in 1442, fall naturally under our view, in order to explain the expedition of Charles the Eighth. I say nothing of inquiries less closely connected with our main subject, inquiries suggested by the events of the Italian expedition; the state of Florence after the unsubstantial lustre of Lorenzo di Medici's government had passed away; the state of the papacy when Alexander the Sixth could be elected to fill the papal chair. But in the more direct inquiries needed to illustrate the contest in Naples itself, we see how wide a field must be explored of earlier times, in order to understand the passing events of modern history.

The Memoirs of Philip de Comines terminate about twenty years before the reformation, six years after the first voyage of Columbus. They relate then to a tranquil period immediately preceding a period of extraordinary movement; to the last stage of an old state of things, now on the point of passing away. Such periods, the lull before the burst of the hurricane, the almost oppressive stillness which announces the eruption, or, to use Campbell's beautiful image

!

"The torrent's smoothness ere it dash below,"

are always, I think, full of a very deep interest. But it is not from the mere force of contrast with the times that follow, nor yet from the solemnity which all things wear when their dissolution is fast approaching-the interest has yet another source; our knowledge namely, that in that tranquil period lay the germs of the great changes following, taking their shape for good or for evil, and sometimes irreversibly, while all wore an outside of unconsciousness. We, enlightened by experience, are impatient of this deadly slumber, we wish in vain that the age could have been awakened to a sense of its condition, and taught the infinite preciousness of the passing hour. And as when a man has been cut off by sudden death, we are curious to know whether his previous words or behaviour indicated any sense of his coming fate, so we examine the records of a state of things just expiring, anxious to observe whether in any point there may be discerned an anticipation of the great future, or whether all was blindness and insensibility. In this respect Comines' Memoirs are striking from their perfect unconsciousness: the knell of the middle ages had been already sounded, yet Comines has no other notions than such as they had tended to foster; he describes their events, their characters, their relations, as if they were to continue for centuries. His remarks are such as the simplest form of human affairs gives birth to; he laments the instability of earthly fortune, as Homer notes our common mortality, or in the tone of that beautiful dialogue between Solon and Cræsus, when the philosopher assured the king that to be rich was not necessarily to be happy. But resembling Herodotus in his simple morality, (7) he is utterly unlike him in another point; for whilst Herodotus speaks freely and honestly of all men without respect of persons, Philip de Comines praises his master Louis the Eleventh as one of the best of princes, although he witnessed not only the crimes of his life, but the miserable fears and suspicions of his latter

end, and has even faithfully recorded them. In this respect Philip de Comines is in no respect superior to Froissart, with whom the crimes committed by his knights and great lords never interfere with his general eulogies of them: the habit of deference and respect was too strong to be broken, and the facts which he himself relates to their discredit, appear to have produced on his mind no impression.

It is not then in Philip de Comines, nor in the other historians of the earlier period of modern history, that we find the greatest historical questions presenting themselves. If we attempt to ascend to these, we must seek them by ourselves; the historians themselves do not naturally lead us to them. But we must now proceed to the second or more complicated period, and we must see to what kind of inquiries the histories of this period immediately introduce us, and what is necessary to enable us fully to understand the scenes which they present to us. And on this subject I hope to enter in my next lecture.

NOTES

TO

LECTURE II.

NOTE 1.-Page 124.

The importance to the cause of education, of right theory and practice of translation, which induced Dr. Arnold to speak of it though only slightly connected with the subject of his lecture, leads me to follow it somewhat farther. The note which I wish to add to his remarks will be found in Appendix III. of this volume.

NOTE 2.-Page 127.

In the Preface to the History of Rome, (p. x.,) Dr. Arnold speaks of Niebuhr's "master art of doubting rightly, and believing rightly."

NOTE 3.-Page 130.

Speaking of the pagan condition of the Anglo-Saxons and their conversion to Christianity, Mr. Burke writes-"The introduction of Christianity, which, under whatever form, always confers such inestimable benefits on mankind, soon made a sensible change in these rude and fierce manners.

"It is by no means impossible, that, for an end so worthy, Providence, on some occasions, might directly have interposed. The books which contain the history of this time and change, are little else than a narrative of miracles; frequently, however, with such apparent marks of weakness or design, that they afford little encouragement to insist on them. They were received with a blind

credulity; they have been since rejected with as undistinguishing a disregard. But as it is not in my design nor inclination, nor indeed in my power, either to establish or refute these stories, it is sufficient to observe, that the reality or opinion of such miracles was the principal cause of the early acceptance and rapid progress of Christianity in this island.”

Essay on English History, book ii. ch. 1.

NOTE 4.-Page 131.

"The clearest notion which can be given of rationalism would, I think, be this; that it is the abuse of the understanding in subjects where the divine and the human, so to speak, are intermingled. Of human things the understanding can judge, of divine things it cannot; and thus, where the two are mixed together, its inability to judge of the one part makes it derange the proportions of both, and the judgment of the whole is vitiated. For example, the understanding examines a miraculous history: it judges truly of what I may call the human part of the case; that is to say, of the rarity of miracles, of the fallibility of human testimony, of the proneness of most minds to exaggeration, and of the critical arguments affecting the genuineness or the date of the narrative itself. But it forgets the divine part, namely, the power and providence of God, that he is really ever present amongst us, and that the spiritual world, which exists invisibly all around us, may conceivably, and by no means impossibly exist, at some times and to some persons, even visibly."

66

Arnold's Sermons, vol. iv., “ Christian Life, its Course, etc.,"

note, p. 465.

***"I neither affirm nor deny any thing as to the question how often in the history of the Church, or in what periods of it, God may have been pleased to suspend the operations of intermediate agents, for the purpose of showing that He is at all times the Author and Mover of them. This question must be determined by a careful study of historical evidence; upon the result of such a study I should be very sorry to dogmatize. Those who believe that miracles are for the assertion of order, and not for the violation of it, for the sake of proving the constant presence of a spiri