The History of Canaan New Hampshire. E-book. Formato PDF - 9780243784028

All history should be the history of the people. It is what the people are doing in villages, communities and families, that lie at the foundation of national character, and sentiment, and consequently of national events. Those matters which possess a natural interest to a particular neighborhood, from associa tion with the familiar names and places, are of interest to every one who seeks in the experience of the past for that wisdom that may be desired from a knowledge of what those who lived before us have done and suffered. These records present to us pictures of human life, its virtues and failings, such as we can best understand. The village dis putes, religious quarrels, and political discussions of past times, are analagous to those to which the present generation is exposed. They afford examples of character and conduct of which we can see the beginning and the end, and may draw therefrom most useful lessons. We are living over the same lines with some variations, but subject to the same general laws of action, inas much as we possess the same natures and are governed by the same passions and motives, which lead to similar results. The historic genealogy of a village may be made as useful a guide through the devious paths of life as the chart of the mariner to him who sails among the breakers of the great deep, pointing out the track that others have pursued, and showing where and how they have advanced in safety, and also wherein they have become the victims of passion, folly and heedlessness.