that we must test their worth, as we test the worth of other facts, by asking to what uses they are applicable.  Were some one to tell you that your neighbour’s cat kittened yesterday, you would say the information was valueless.  Fact though it might be, you would call it an utterly useless fact—­a fact that could in no way influence your actions in life—­a fact that would not help you in learning how to live completely.  Well, apply the same test to the great mass of historical facts, and you will get the same result.  They are facts from which no conclusions can be drawn—­unorganisable facts; and therefore facts of no service in establishing principles of conduct, which is the chief use of facts.  Read them, if you like, for amusement; but do not flatter your self they are instructive.

That which constitutes History, properly so called, is in great part omitted from works on the subject.  Only of late years have historians commenced giving us, in any considerable quantity, the truly valuable information.  As in past ages the king was everything and the people nothing; so, in past histories the doings of the king fill the entire picture, to which the national life forms but an obscure background.  While only now, when the welfare of nations rather than of rulers is becoming the dominant idea, are historians beginning to occupy themselves with the phenomena of social progress.  The thing it really concerns us to know is the natural history of society.  We want all facts which help us to understand how a nation has grown and organised itself.  Among these, let us of course have an account of its government; with as little as may be of gossip about the men who officered it, and as much as possible about the structure, principles, methods, prejudices, corruptions, etc., which it exhibited:  and let this account include not only the nature and actions of the central government, but also those of local governments, down to their minutest ramifications.  Let us of course also have a parallel description of the ecclesiastical government—­its organisation, its conduct, its power, its relations to the State; and accompanying this, the ceremonial, creed, and religious ideas—­not only those nominally believed, but those really believed and acted upon.  Let us at the same time be informed of the control exercised by class over class, as displayed in social observances—­in titles, salutations, and forms of address.  Let us know, too, what were all the other customs which regulated the popular life out of doors and in-doors:  including those concerning the relations of the sexes, and the relations of parents to children.  The superstitions, also, from the more important myths down to the charms in common use, should be indicated.  Next should come a delineation of the industrial system:  showing to what extent the division of labour was carried; how trades were regulated, whether by caste, guilds, or otherwise; what was the connection between employers