Plan in History. By Rev. E. A. Lawrence, D. D. [pp. 555-564]

Plan in ItIistory.
ARTICLE IV.-Plan in History.
THE events whichl constitute the material of history take
place in successive periods and within certain limiits. This introduces the two ideas of Time and Place, or Chronology and
Geography, which Dr. Arnold calls the two eyes of history.
They may, however, with greater significance, be styled its
wings, for without them there could be no progress. But
neither of these ideas pertain to the Infinite, for in him there is
no limitation or change. He is before all time, and, as a totality, is in all space. But with his creatures every event, by a
law of limitation, has a when and where it happened.
Time commenced with succession, and succession with creation. It may be called the finite of eternity, as place is the definite of absolute space.
For the measurement of time into day and night, summer
and winter, seed-time and harvest, God has provided with wonderfuil exactness. Sun, moon, and stars are his undeviating
chronometers, which never lag behind nor move with a second's undue rapidity. What hour the clock now strikes,-how
long it is since the beginning, neither the horologists nor the
geologists can tell us. And if they could, it would give us no
new feature of the historic course except its velocity.
But for amplitude, fertility, and diversity of race, Providence
has spread out the whole surface of land and water, hills and
valleys, soil and sands, generating local affinities and ethnical
dispersions. The capacious bosom of the earth he has filled
with its richest treasures and bounties, exciting to investigation,
feeding commerce, stimulating industry, and keeping the world
a ceaseless student of the handiwork of its Maker.
Hence Geography is a providential condition of History, and
a preparation for it. Facts have a local value as well as figures.
" Give me the map of any country," says Victor Cousin, " its
configuration, its climate, its waters, its winds; give me its
natural productions, its flora and zoology, and I pledge myself
to tell you, dpriori, what will be the quality of man in that
country, and what part its inhabitants will act in history."
These ideas of time and place suggest the more fundamental
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