H ISTORIC truth ought to be no less sacred than religion. If the precepts of faith raise our soul above the interests of this world, the lessons of history, in their turn, inspire us with the love of the beautiful and the just, and the hatred of whatever presents an obstacle to the progress of humanity. These lessons, to be profitable, require certain conditions. It is necessary that the facts be produced with a rigorous exactness, that the changes political or social be analysed philosophically

I. “In the birth of societies,” says Montesquieu, “it is the chiefs of the republics who form the institution, and in the sequel it is the institution which forms the chiefs of the republics.” And he adds, “One of the causes of the prosperity of Rome was the fact that its kings were all great men. We find nowhere else in history an uninterrupted series of such statesmen and such military commanders.” [8] The story, more or less fabulous, of the foundation of Rome does not come within the limits

I. A BOUT the time when Marius, by his victories over the Cimbri and Teutones, saved Italy from a formidable invasion, was born at Rome the man who would one day, by again subduing the Gauls and Germans, retard for several centuries the irruption of the barbarians, give the knowledge of their rights to oppressed peoples, assure continuance to Roman civilisation, and bequeath his name to the future chiefs of nations, as a consecrated emblem of power. Caius Julius Cæsar was born at Rome on the 4th

I T is, perhaps, not without interest, in publishing the second volume of the History of Julius Cæsar, written by the Emperor Napoleon III., to call to memory the names of Sovereigns and Princes who have employed themselves upon the same subject. The King of France, Charles VIII. , showed an especial admiration for the Commentaries of Cæsar, and the celebrated monk, Robert Gaguin, presented to him, in 1480, the translation he had made in French of the eight books of the War in Gaul. We are infor

I. T HERE are peoples whose existence in the past only reveals itself by certain brilliant apparitions, unequivocal proofs of an energy which had been previously unknown. During the interval their history is involved in obscurity, and they resemble those long-silent volcanoes, which we should take to be extinct but for the eruptions which, at periods far apart, occur and expose to view the fire which smoulders in their bosom. Such had been the Gauls. The accounts of their ancient expeditions bea

[1] Justin, XXIV. 4.—Titus Livius, V. 48. [2] Polybius, II. 17-19.—Titus Livius, V. 35. [3] Pausanias, X. 19-23.—Diodorus Siculus, Eclog. , XXII. 13. [4] Strabo, IV. p. 156, edit. Dübner and Müller.—Justin, XXXII. 3. [5] Polybius, IV. 46. [6] Justin, XXV. 2.—Titus Livius, XXXVIII. 16.—Pausanias, VII. 6, § 5. [7] Polybius, XXXIII. 7, 8.—Titus Livius, Epitome , XLVII. [8] Strabo, IV., p. 169. [9] Titus Livius, Epitome , LX. [10] Titus Livius, Epitome , LXI. [11] Strabo, IV., pp. 154, 159.—Titus Li