Historical Essays

Front matter

HISTORICAL ESSAYS. BY JOHN COLEMAN. "Concerning the materials of sedition. It is a thing well to be considered; for the surest way to prevent seditions, (if the times do bear it) is to take away the matter of them; for if there be but fuel prepared, it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that shall set it on fire." "It is good, therefore, that men in their innovations should follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived. It is good also not to try experiments in states, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility evident ; and well to beware that it be the reformation that draweth on the change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reformation. And, lastly, that the novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a suspect; and as the Scripture saith, 'That we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us, and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk in it.'" Bacon.

Uontoon : THOMAS HATCHARD, 187, PICCADILLY. 1851. PRINTED BY HENRY HARRIS, SNARGATE STREET, DOVER. " It is a beautiful mark of a healthy and right un derstanding when a man is serious and attentive to all great questions, when he is with modesty and attention adding gradually to his conviction and knowledge on such topics ; not repulsed by his own previous mis takes, not disgusted by the mistakes of others, but, in spite of violence and error, believing that there is somewhere or other moderation and truth — and that to seek that truth with diligence, with seriousness, and with constancy, is one of the highest and best objects for which a man can live. Well and happily has he conducted his understanding who has learnt to derive from the exercise of it regular occupation and rational delight ; who after having overcome the first pain of application, and acquired a habit of looking inwardly upon his own mind, perceives that every day is multi plying the relations, confirming the accuracy, and augmenting the number of his ideas; who feels that he is rising in the scale of intellectual beings, gathering new strength with every difficulty which he subdues, and enjoying to-day as his pleasure that which yester day he laboured at as a toil.

There are many conso lations in the mind of such a man which no common life can ever afford; and many enjoyments which it has not to give !" — Rev. Sydney Smith's Essays.