what has happened。 This union of the two meanings we must regard as of a higher order than mere
outward accident; we must suppose historical narrations to have appeared contemporaneously
with historical deeds and events。 It is an internal vital principle mon to both that produces them
synchronously。 Family memorials; patriarchal traditions; have an interest confined to the family and
the clan。 The uniform course of events which such a condition implies; is no subject of serious
remembrance; though distinct transactions or turns of fortune; may rouse Mnemosyne to form
conceptions of them; — in the same way as love and the religious emotions provoke imagination to
give shape to a previously formless impulse。 But it is the State which first presents subject…matter
that is not only adapted to the prose of History; but involves the production of such history in the
very progress of its own being。 Instead of merely subjective mandates on the part of government;
— sufficing for the needs of the moment; — a munity that is acquiring a stable existence; and
exalting itself into a State; requires formal mands and laws — prehensive and universally
binding prescriptions; and thus produces a record as well as an interest concerned with intelligent;
definite — and; in their results — lasting transactions and occurrences; on which Mnemosyne; for
the behoof of the perennial object of the formation and constitution of the State; is impelled to
confer perpetuity。 Profound sentiments generally; such as that of love; as also religious intuition and
its conceptions; are in themselves plete — constantly present and satisfying; but that outward
existence of a political constitution which is enshrined in its rational laws and customs; is an
imperfect Present; and cannot be thoroughly understood without a knowledge of the past。
§ 69
The periods — whether we suppose them to be centuries or millennia — that were passed by
nations before history was written among them; — and which may have been filled with
revolutions; nomadic wanderings; and the strangest mutations; — are on that very account destitute
of objective history; because they present no subjective history; no annals。 We need not suppose
that the records of such periods have accidentally perished; rather; because they were not
possible; do we find them wanting。 Only in a State cognisant of Laws; can distinct transactions
take place; acpanied by such a clear consciousness of them as supplies the ability and
suggests the necessity of an enduring record。 It strikes every one; in beginning to form an
acquaintance with the treasures of Indian literature; that a land so rich in intellectual products; and
those of the profoundest order of thought; has no History; and in this respect contrasts most
strongly with China — an empire possessing one so remarkable; one going back to the most