Historical Parallels, Band 1C. Knight, 1846 - 286 Seiten Works of history may be divided into two great classes: those which select a single action or a detached period for their subject; and those which follow a nation through the whole or a large portion of its existence; and which, embracing a number of such subjects, compensate for giving less minute and accurate information upon each, by explaining their relation, and the influence which they have exerted upon each other. To the former belong Thucydides, Xenophon, and Cesar; to the latter Diodorus and Livy: or, in English literature, we may take Clarendon and Hume respectively as the representatives of these divisions. It is obvious that the method of treating themes so different in character, must also be essentially different; that for an historian of the latter class to aim at the particularity which we expect in the former, would involve something of the same absurdity as if a landscape painter were to give to an extended horizon the distinctness and detail which are proper to his foregrounds or to a closely bounded scene. If our curiosity is not satisfied by a comprehensive view, the remedy is to be found by multiplying pictures of its most striking parts, not by introducing into one canvas a multitude of objects which must fatigue and confuse the mind, and obscure those leading features which ought to stand out in prominent relief. |
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appear Aristomenes Aristophanes arms army assault Athenians Athens attack Attica battle besieged body bridge called Cambyses camp cause cavalry charge Christian church citizens Cleon command Corcyra courage Crassus danger Darius dead death defence Emperor empire enemy escape evil favour fear fell fight fire fleet force French friends gave Grecian Greece Greeks ground hands head heard Herodotus Hippias honour horse hundred king kyng Lacedæmonians land Lord master Miltiades nation never Nicias night noble Parthians party passage passed Pausanias Peloponnesians Pericles perished Persian Persian war persons Pisistratus plague Platæa Plutarch possession prince prisoners Publius Crassus ranks retreat returned Romans sayd Scythians sent ships side siege slain Socrates soldiers Spartans spirit suffered Surena sword Themistocles things thou thought Thucyd Thucydides tion took town triremes troops unto valour victory Vols walls whole Xerxes
Beliebte Passagen
Seite 124 - Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity.
Seite 124 - This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which is come upon my lord the king. That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field...
Seite 124 - At the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. 30 The king spake, and said, is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
Seite 266 - Claverhouse mounted his horse and marched, and left her with the corpse of her dead husband lying there ; she set the bairn upon the ground, and gathered his brains, and tied up his head, and straighted his body, and covered him with her plaid, and sat down and wept over him.
Seite 132 - I take my subjects' money, when I want it, without all this formality of parliament?" The bishop of Durham readily answered, "God forbid, Sir, but you should: you are the breath of our nostrils." Whereupon the King turned and said to the bishop of Winchester, "Well, my Lord, what say you?" "Sir," replied the bishop, "I have no skill to judge of parliamentary cases." The King answered, "No put-offs, my Lord; answer me presently.
Seite 29 - ... every powerful man made his castles, and held them against him ; and they filled the land full of castles. They cruelly oppressed the wretched men of the land with castle-works. When the castles were made they filled them with devils and evil men.
Seite 32 - The camp was all in tumult, and there was such a thunder Of cymbals and of drums, as if earth would cleave in sunder. There you might see the Moors arming themselves in haste, And the two main battles how they were forming fast ; Horsemen and footmen mix'd, a countless troop and vast.
Seite 129 - Gnomes ! o'er the waste you led your myriad powers, Climb'd on the whirls, and aimed the flinty showers ! Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge, Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge ; Wave over wave the driving desert swims, Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs ; Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush, Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush, — Wheeling in air the winged islands fall, And one great...
Seite 282 - At which sight the sheriff wept apace, and so did divers others of the company. After they had prayed, he rose up and kissed his wife, and shook her by the hand, and said : Farewell, my dear wife, be of good comfort, for I am quiet in my conscience. God shall stir up a father for my children.