Page:Three introductory lectures on the study of ecclesiastical history.djvu/46

38 special incidents and characters that the life-blood of that history depends. How can we best make ourselves acquainted with these?

In this, as in so many other branches of knowledge, the question can only be fully answered in each particular case. Whatever way will best enable each man in his own peculiar situation, character, and opportunities, to remember, and understand, and profit, that is to him the best, and can be taught only by consulting his own experience.

For general readers, the best general counsel which can be given is that which I have already indicated. Study the history of the Church in connexion with the collateral subjects with which it is bound up; let us keep our eyes and ears open to the religious aspects of history, and they will flow in upon us, we know not whence, or how.

Let us read also, whatever we do read, as elsewhere, so here, in the works of eminent historians rather than in those of writers without a name and without a character; and yet more, read, if possible, works which describe what they describe at length and in detail, and which therefore leave a lasting impression on the memory and imagination, rather than in the crowded pages of meagre abstracts, which are forgotten as soon as read. Great works and full works, not small works and short works, are in the end the best economy of time as well as of everything else.

But this leads me to what is, on the whole, the