reaction on the historical judgment of the work and character of Napoleon I., an effect nowhere more conspicuous than in the country which owes so much to his genius. The discovery of unknown portions of the globe, and the consequent struggles for colonisation, have introduced an enlarged conception of future possibilities which is seriously affecting our former ideas of the end of progress. The growth of the Russian Empire has revealed characteristics of Slavonic civilisation which may still further modify our conception. Thus, the basis of a scientific study of history is continually being enlarged. The ideas which enter into it become more abstract as they become larger, and, as they become more abstract, they become less personal.
The other side of the study of history is the recognition that, be things as they may, they were the result of human effort, the product of man's endeavour to do the best that he could for himself. We, who are workers in the present, wish to fortify ourselves by a feeling of sympathy with the great workers of the past. Reverence for great names is the secular side of the ecclesiastical doctrine of the Communion of Saints. No man can stand alone; he wishes to feel that some prophet's mantle has fallen upon his shoulders, that he has a source of inspiration for his own efforts; that he is engaged in a continuous work, which will pass on to others who follow him. Thus he needs heroes for the purpose of his personal edification. This is a laudable aspiration; but it is one which we must satisfy at our own risk. Inspiration is different from imitation. We must see that
