Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire (Volume 1; V. 13) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1861. Excerpt: ... ON BOOKS PUBLISHED IN LIVERPOOL. By Albert J. Mott, Esq. (read 10th November, 1889.) Our researches into the history of our town and neighbourhood will be complete and valuable in proportion to the degree in which they justly illustrate the conditions of human life and the actual influence of those conditions within the limits of our district. To set our opportunities side by side with our achievements; to measure causes by their effects, and contrast effects with causes; to see on the one hand what we have been, and on the other hand what we might have been, is not always easy or often flattering, but is at least one of the chief ends of historical inquiry. We occupy a certain geographical position; we have under us a particular series of geological formations; we live in a climate of our own; on the surface of the ground we occupy there is a special growth of plants; a special group of animals; our atmosphere has its peculiar insects, our hedges have their birds and our shores their shells. In the midst of all are the ruins of human workmanship; the ruins, and at the same time, the records. Each successive race has left something, and over what they have left stand the towns we ourselves have built and the people living in them. Those living people are the issue of what I have enumerated. Is the issue worthy or unworthy, or in what measure is it a mixture of both? Have we made the most of our position on the map of the world? Are we the better for our coal and salt and sandstone? Have we been taught to recognise what is sublime by the storms about our coasts; what is honourable by the faithful tides; what is beautiful by the northern lights, the medusae, and the peacock butterflies? Contrasting the spirit of our own works with the thought, skill, and industry exhibited in our arch...