CHAPTER V. 475 former times. This made the Emperor Marcus Antonius to say, " By looking back into history, and considering the fate and revolutions of governments, you will be able to form a guess, and almost prophesy upon the future. For things past, present, and to come, are strangely uniform, and of a colour, and are commonly cast in the same mould. So that upon the matter, forty years of human life may serve for a sample of ten thousand." Collier's Antonius, Book VII. sect. 50. 7. There are also some other principles of judging concern- ing the past actions of men in former ages, besides books, his- tories and traditions, which are the mediums of conveying hu- man testimony ; as we may infer the skill and magnificence of the ancients by some fragments of their statues, and ruins of their buildings. We know what Roman legions came into Great Britain, by numbers of bricks dug out of the earth in some parts of the island, with the marks of some particular legion upon them, which must have been employed there in brick - making. We rectify sure mistakes in history by statues, coins, old altars, utensils of war, &c. We confirm or disprove some pretended traditions and historical writings, by medals, images, pictures, urns, &c. Thus I have gone through all those particular objects of our judgment which I first proposed, and have laid down prin- ciples and rules by which we may safely conduct ourselves therein. There is a variety of other objects, concerning which we are occasionally called to pass a judgment, namely, the cha- racters of persons, the value and worth of things, the sense and meaning of particular writers, matters of wit, oratory, poesy, matters of equity in judicial courts, matters of traffic and com- merce between man and man, which would be endless to enume- rate. But if the general and special rules of judgment, which have been mentioned in these two last chapters, are treasured up in the mind, and wrought into the very temper of our souls in our younger years, they will lay a foundation for just and regu- lar judgment concerning a thousand special occurrences in the religious, civil, and learned life.
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