They take a nation arrived at a certain stage of its history, and they affirm that it could not but follow the track which brought it thither.

It is easier to make such an assertion than to show by what means the nation might have adopted a better course.
In reading the historians of aristocratic ages, and especially those of antiquity, it would seem that, to be master of his lot, and to govern his fellow-creatures, man requires only to be master of himself.

In perusing the historical volumes which our age has produced, it would seem that man is utterly powerless over himself and over all around him.
The historians of antiquity taught how to command: those of our time teach only how to obey; in their writings the author often appears great, but humanity is always diminutive.

If this doctrine of necessity, which is so attractive to those who write history in democratic ages, passes from authors to their readers, till it infects the whole mass of the community and gets possession of the public mind, it will soon paralyze the activity of modern society, and reduce Christians to the level of the Turks.

I would moreover observe, that such principles are peculiarly dangerous at the period at which we are arrived.