246 H. W. SCOTT. be}^ond her home land ; yet, of the Western Hemisphere one half remains Spanish, and in the Indies and elsewhere millions of the human race attest, through language and customs and institutions and character, the greatness of the part played by Spain in the history of the world. Striking resemblances are presented, at different stages of history ; but no historical parallel can be absolutely perfect, because no event in history exactly repeats itself. In truth, it can not repeat itself, because the event with which it is compared has gone before it, and new mate- rials and new forces are added to the later terms, while some of the former terms have been eliminated. The fact that one event belongs to one age and country and the other event to another age and country, will impress upon each important points of difference from the other; but it does not at all follow from this that real instruction, practical instruction and not mere gratification of curi- osity, may not be drawn from the comparison of distant events with one another. We see in these comparisons, though they be riot parallels, the unity of history and the connection of history. Repetitions are not to be expected. Very different destinies awaited the efforts of England, of France, and of Spain in America ; though they all started upon a common basis in the New World. The difference was chiefly that of National character between the colo- nizers showing that the quality of the human spirit ap- plied to any important problem, is the main factor, or, indeed, all. in all. Non omnia possumus omnes. We can't all of us do everything. The origin of all Aryan legislatures is to be found in the village council, which was the first effort to create a legis- lative body. " From this embryo," says Sir Henry Maine, "has sprung all the most famous legislatures of the world the Athenean Ecclesia, the Roman Comitia, Senate and Prince, and our own Parliament. The type and parent of
