Page:Three introductory lectures on the study of ecclesiastical history.djvu/50

42 which he first belonged; working at his history night and day with insatiable ardour to shew to his unconverted countrymen what Christianity really was; abstracted from all thought of worldly cares, of food, and dress, and money, and time; living, dying, buried in the affections, in the arms of his devoted pupils. What by proximity of time we are enabled to do for the historian, true research usually enables us to do for those whom he describes. Watch their first appearance, their education, their conflicts, their death-beds. Observe their relative position to each other; see what one did which another would not have done, what one thought or said which to another would have been heretical or superstitious; or, lastly, what all did, and said, and thought in common.

If I were to name one especial excellence amongst the many which render Mr. Grote's great achievement so important an addition, not merely to Grecian history, but to all historical study, of whatever kind, it would be the keen discrimination with which he presents, not merely distinct characters, but distinct types of character in the lineage of the Grecian mind, whom before we had been accustomed to regard much as we usually regard the fixed stars—their distance from each other being lost in comparison with the distance from ourselves. This marked contrast and combination of characters is exactly what is most needed in the history of the Church. Here, even more than in common