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François Guizot
The History of France
(Vol. 1-6)
Complete Edition
Published by
Books
- Advanced Digital Solutions & High-Quality eBook Formatting -
2020 OK Publishing
EAN 4064066392680
Table of Contents
Volume 1
Table of Contents
EXTRACT FROM LETTER TO THE PUBLISHERS.
CHAPTER II. THE GAULS OUT OF GAUL.
CHAPTER III. THE ROMANS IN GAUL.
CHAPTER IV. GAUL CONQUERED BY JULIUS CAESAR.
CHAPTER V. GAUL UNDER ROMAN DOMINION.
CHAPTER VI. ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY IN GAUL.
CHAPTER VII. THE GERMANS IN GAUL. THE FRANKS AND CLOVIS.
CHAPTER VIII. THE MEROVINGIANS.
CHAPTER IX. THE MAYORS OF THE PALACE. THE PEPINS AND THE CHANGE OF DYNASTY.
CHAPTER X CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS WARS.
CHAPTER XI. CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS GOVERNMENT.
CHAPTER XII. DECAY AND FALL OF THE CARLOVINGIANS.
CHAPTER XIII. FEUDAL FRANCE AND HUGH CAPET.
CHAPTER XIV. THE CAPETIANS TO THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES.
CHAPTER XV. CONQUEST OF ENGLAND BY THE NORMANS.
CHAPTER XVI. THE CRUSADES, THEIR ORIGIN AND THEIR SUCCESS.
EXTRACT FROM LETTER TO THE PUBLISHERS.
Every history, and especially that of France, is one vast, long drama, in which events are linked together according to defined laws, and in which the actors play parts not ready made and learned by heart, parts depending, in fact, not only upon the accidents of their birth, but also upon their own ideas and their own will. There are, in the history of peoples, two sets of causes essentially different, and, at the same time, closely connected; the natural causes which are set over the general course of events, and the unrestricted causes which are incidental. Men do not make the whole of history it has laws of higher origin; but, in history, men are unrestricted agents who produce for it results and exercise over it an influence for which they are responsible. The fated causes and the unrestricted causes, the defined laws of events and the spontaneous actions of man’s free agency—herein is the whole of history. And in the faithful reproduction of these two elements consist the truth and the moral of stories from it.
Never was I more struck with this two-fold character of history than in my tales to my grandchildren. When I commenced with them, they, beforehand, evinced a lively interest, and they began to listen to me with serious good will; but when they did not well apprehend the lengthening chain of events, or when historical personages did not become, in their eyes, creatures real and free, worthy of sympathy or reprobation, when the drama was not developed before them with clearness and animation, I saw their attention grow fitful and flagging; they required light and life together; they wished to be illumined and excited, instructed and amused.
At the same time that the difficulty of satisfying this two-fold desire was painfully felt by me, I discovered therein more means and chances than I had at first foreseen of succeeding in making my young audience comprehend the history of France in its complication and its grandeur. When Corneille observed—
“In the well-born soul Valor ne’er lingers till due seasons roll,”—
he spoke as truly for intelligence as for valor. When once awakened and really attentive, young minds are more earnest and more capable of complete comprehension than any one would suppose. In order to explain fully to my grandchildren the connection of events and the influence of historical personages, I was sometimes led into very comprehensive considerations and into pretty deep studies of character. And in such cases I was nearly always not only perfectly understood but keenly appreciated. I put it to the proof in the sketch of Charlemagne’s reign and character; and the two great objects of that great man, who
