Excerpt from Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, Vol. 1: Itinerarium Peregrinorum Et Gesta Regis Ricardi; Auctore, Ut Videtur, Ricardo, Canonico Sanctae Trinitatis Londoniensis There are periods in the history of all nations, which are neither seed times of great principles nor harvests of great results. They are the seasons during which the institutions of earlier policy are spreading wide and striking deep below the surface of society, its spirit working into the heart and life of the people, and its fruits growing and ripening before the beginning of a new development. These periods may be longer or shorter, as the growth of principles is retarded or fos tered: accordingly as rulers force their propagation by repressing them, or moderate it by training and guid ance. If they are longer they have a series of heroes of a type of character peculiar to themselves. If they are shorter they have at least the old age of the men who have established the principles, and the youth and training of those who are to work out the further steps of progress. But any how they are richer in materials for the student of national and personal character, than in topics for the constitutional historian. The former will find abundant details of adventure and elucidations of manners: the latter, unless he is well supplied with records, in which he may trace the workings of the insti tutions, that are not less a part of the nation's life because they are uninteresting to the superficial reader, can only guess here and there at what is going on amongst those whose lives are not written, and is tempted to indulge in the visions of a speculative philosophy of history. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.