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 ADDRESS 
 
 IRo^al Ibistorical Society, 
 
 FEBRUARY 18th, 1892, 
 
 THE RIGHT HONBLE. 
 
 SIR MOUNTSTUART E, ^RANT DUFF, G.C.S.I., 
 
 PRESIDENT. 
 

 KlNGSTON-ON-THAMES : 
 
 Printed by W. Drewett, 37, Market Place, and Ceres Road. 
 
 M 
 
Gtentlemen, 
 
 When you were good enough to elect me last year 
 to the post which gives me the privilege of addressing you on 
 this occasion, the honour came rather unexpectedly, and I 
 thought I did not know enough about the circumstances, pros- 
 pects, and possibilities of the Society to make it wise for me to' 
 speak to you at any length before I had had a year's experience 
 of its working. I have now had this, and that is the reason 
 why I have ventured to ask you to meet me this afternoon. 
 
 The Koyal Historical Society had the advantage of com- 
 mencing its work under the nominal guidance of two very 
 eminent Presidents : Mr. Grote was a great historian, while 
 Lord Kussell was a not inconsiderable maker of history. 
 When, however, they became connected with us they were 
 both very old men, their work was done ; and it would not have 
 been reasonable to expect from them much more than the 
 sanction of their great names. It was not till the days of 
 their successor — Lord Aberdare — that the President took an 
 active part in the direction of our affairs. When he came to 
 the rescue, he was not young, and might fairly have considered 
 that he had earned repose ; but no man among his contem- 
 poraries has been less sparing of himself or more zealous in the 
 discharge of every duty which he could with any sort of reason 
 be asked to undertake. A poet, who spoke with full knowledge, 
 said of him some time ago — 
 
 What shall be written to the man 
 Who through life's mingled hopes and fears 
 Attains to-day our little span 
 Of seventy years ? 
 
 What else but this ? Brave heart be strong. 
 Be of good hope — life holds no fears, 
 Nor death, for him who strives with wrong 
 For seventy years. 
 
 Live, labour, spread that sacred light 
 Of knowledge which thy soul reveres, 
 Fight still the old victorious fight 
 Of seventy years. 
 
 Many lustra spent in high and varied office and in both 
 branches of the legislature had left, as they leave him, full of 
 interest in those great subjects which are the very eyes of 
 
politics — Geography, and its sister History, which brings 
 us together in this hall. He would, I am sure, agree with 
 me in thinking that the writer of the preface to the English 
 Historical Revieiv did not at all overstate his case when he 
 said that he believed that history, " in an even greater degree 
 " than its votaries had generally recognized, is the central study 
 " among human studies capable of illuminating and enriching 
 " all the rest." 
 
 If this be true, it becomes a matter of first rate impor- 
 tance to consider what ought to be its place in education, and 
 this Society can be hardly better occupied for an hour than in 
 attempting to arrive at an answer to that question. In order 
 to give to it anything like a satisfactory answer, we must first 
 know precisely what we mean by History, and what by Education. 
 
 I understand by History, in the sense in which I am at 
 present using that term, the record of those events which have 
 been chiefly instrumental in creating the state of affairs with 
 which we are now dealing on this planet, in so far as they have 
 been brought about by human agency ; together with the record 
 of such other facts as, although their consequences may not be 
 traceable in the state of affairs into which we have been born, 
 are nevertheless such as wise men will be unwilling not to 
 know. 
 
 The first of these records has to do with History chiefly in 
 its scientific, the second chiefly in its literary aspect. Having 
 regard to this distinction, we may say that our first object in 
 teaching History should be to explain the present, and to put 
 the learner in possession of facts which may guide him in 
 forming his opinions as to the changes which changing circum- 
 stances'may require in a world where nothing continueth in 
 one stay ; while our second object should be to store his mind 
 with images, sayings, and examples which may be full-welling 
 fountain-heads of right sympathies, of pure affections, and of 
 all nobleness. 
 
 By Education again, in the sense in which I am at 
 present using the term, I understand the process by which we 
 endeavour to enable men or women to make the most of the 
 faculties that have been given them, due regard being had to 
 the positions which they occupy in the social scale, or are 
 reasonably likelv to attain to. It follows from this definition 
 of education that there must be a great many varieties of it, 
 and that the amount of History which it may be desirable for 
 the educator to impart to different individuals may be expected 
 to vary not a little. To prevent confusion, however, I shall 
 
speak almost exclusively of the amount and kind of Histoiy 
 which it is desirable to teach to the average man who proposes 
 to carry on his education up to the age at which it is usual to 
 take the degree of Bachelor of Arts in an English University, 
 and who aims at occupying with credit a good place in Society. 
 I do not mean to speak of persons who desire to devote them- 
 selves to History, either as writers, lecturers or professed 
 students, nor shall I say anything of those who are training 
 especially for statesmanship or diplomacy, though it was for 
 them that the first Modern History School at Oxford was 
 founded in the days of George the First. I know no reason 
 why the historical training given to women who wish to be 
 well educated should differ in any respect from that given to 
 men of the same age. 
 
 We all know that the faculties which first develope are 
 usually the observing faculties, and that the only reasonable 
 systems of education are those which take advantage of that 
 law of human nature, by gratifying and stimulating the 
 curiosity of the pupil, until a very fair knowledge has been 
 obtained of what, for want of a better name, are called 
 " common things," a knowledge which involves the acquisition 
 of no small number of scientific facts. Side by side with the 
 desire to know about our immediate surroundings a taste for 
 poetry is often awakened, and use should be made of both these 
 tendencies in preparing the mind for historical studies. The 
 second leads directly to History, though by a postern door ; the 
 first to her twin sister, Geography. 
 
 Surely one of the first things which any tolerably rational 
 creature has got to do is to answer the question " Where am I ?" 
 
 We might take a lesson from one of the commonest of our 
 domestic animals. Bring a cat into a drawing-room, and what 
 does she proceed to do ? Why, to examine every article of 
 furniture, and come to some conclusion or other, enlightened 
 or unenlightened, about it. Carry some new article into a 
 room with which she is acquainted, and she will not rest until 
 she has examined and settled her views about it. So with 
 tribes which have made but little progress in civilization. I 
 have found myself among people who were still on the lowest 
 steps of the ladder of learning, who could not count above 
 twenty, but who had a minute acquaintance with the trees and 
 shrubs and animals of their jungles. The hideous process 
 which we describe as a good education too often kills that 
 greatest intellectual possession — "la grande curiosite." Far 
 from doing so, we should take advantage of the natural instinct 
 
of curiosity, stimulate children to know all about their own 
 neighbourhood, and then pass on from that to the county, the 
 district, the country and so to Universal Geography. They 
 would not, however, have gone very far in geographical studies 
 before they began to ask questions which could only be 
 answered by an appeal to History, and these two studies, 
 throwing floods of light each upon the other, should be made 
 the staple of all secondary education in this country, in so far as 
 it is not directed chiefly towards Physics, Chemistry or 
 Mathematics, which for obvious reasons it must often be. 
 
 Much ink has been expended on the controversy whether 
 History should be looked upon as a branch of science or 
 as a branch of literature. It is the old story of the shield 
 with two sides : if we look at History from one point of view it 
 appears as a succession of problems ; if we look at it from 
 another, it appears a pageant, a succession of pictures — 
 sometimes sad, sometimes brilliant. It is, however, from the 
 side on which it looks like a succession of pictures that general 
 History is approached with most advantage. 
 
 To penetrate into that kingdom the child must usually 
 take a great passport of poetry, although the History of his own 
 country may be very well approached from the mechanism of 
 the parish, the county, the town, or the electoral sub-division. 
 However he may approach History, whether by the gate of 
 poetry or geography, and with whatever portion of the lealm 
 which he enters he may chiefly occupy himself, is all one to us. 
 
 The Royal Historical Society claims for its domain every 
 thing that men have done. No exposition of facts can be too 
 picturesque for us, provided always the facts have occurred ; 
 that th^y are, in other words, pearls, not mock pearls of History. 
 On the other hand no disquisitions on the philosophy or science 
 of History can be too abstruse, provided always they have a 
 real basis, and are not, as is far, far too often the case, airy 
 nothings spun out of some busy brain. What can be more 
 natural than that men who have seen the immense advance 
 which the researches of Mr. Darwin have brought about in our 
 knowledge of the material world should imagine that in the 
 theory of Evolution they have a magic wand which, when they 
 touch with it the accumulated facts of History, may enable 
 them to turn that accumulation into a science ? Perhaps it is so, 
 but I am afraid we are still in the same difficulty which the 
 German poet foresaw with reference to the Philosopher's Stone. 
 Evolution may be the wand of the magician, but the magician 
 is wanting to the wand. Before biology began to attract so 
 
much attention, some writers borrowed for the use of the 
 science of Historj' a different set of phrases from other branches 
 of human knowledge, and Mr. Mill wrote of Social Statics and 
 Social Dynamics. All such phrases, however, although they 
 have the authority of great names, seem to me only to darken 
 counsel by leading students of History to expect a great deal 
 more than they will obtain. Heaven knows, they will obtain 
 enough without cherishing false hopes ! 
 
 I say, then, weave into History as much philosophy as you 
 please, and as much poetry as you please, provided always you 
 do not torture facts to suit your immediate purpose. Wisely 
 did my predecessor insist on the importance of keeping the 
 work of this Society catholic. Not long ago one of our number 
 proposed that we should make it our principal object to discuss 
 what he described as " Historical Origins," rather than the 
 details of comparatively minor historical events. I say let us 
 have both. He desired, amongst other things, that we 
 should discuss the origins of Egyptian, Chaldean, and Chinese 
 civilization, besides ten other similar subjects. By all means! 
 I suppose we should welcome with enthusiasm really good 
 papers on all the subjects which he enumerated, including the 
 pre-Aryan civilization of India, a most uncommonly hard nut to 
 crack. I am sure I hope before the obituary notice of the 
 Historical Society comes to be written that we shall have had 
 papers on every one of Mr. Glennie's suggested subjects, and 
 that we shall not be deterred from receiving them with respect by 
 the natural criticism that our proper sphere is the historic not 
 thepre-historic. Another high authority — Mr. Herbert Spencer — 
 declares that the only kind of History which is of any use is 
 Descriptive Sociology. This view appears to me not as in- 
 adequate as the one I have just been discussing, bat extremely 
 inadequate. Far be it from me to deny that historians have 
 till recently given us too little of the information which 
 Mr. Spencer chiefly affects, and that a great deal too much 
 importance has been attached by readers of History to facts 
 which, if not unimportant, are important almost exclusively 
 to specialists, such as the strategy which led to victory or 
 defeat in a particular campaign, or the tactics which won or 
 lost for this or that commander a particular battle. Still, 
 Descriptive Sociology would be but a chaos to those who did 
 not acquire what I am insisting on, a knowledge, that is, of 
 the broad facts of human history, the kind of knowledge which 
 is necessary if the annals of our race are to be to us anything 
 better than 
 
 A mighty maze and all without a plan. 
 
The truth is, that everything which can throw new light 
 on the biography of nations, or on the lives of individuals who 
 have been directly or indirectly potent in influencing the fate 
 of nations, belongs to our sphere of action, though it is indis- 
 putable that some facts are immensely more important than 
 others, and that some departments of History- — all that relates 
 to Industrial and Economic change for example — have been 
 unduly neglected. The first merit of the historian, as of the 
 statesman, is aptness to be right, and that is the most 
 useful history which brings the most important things into the 
 boldest relief and stamps them deepest on the memory. 
 
 To return, however, to the pupil who is approaching the 
 study of History. We must presume that the inevitable pre- 
 liminaries of all education have been got over, that he can 
 really read, not according to the contemptible standard with 
 which, in this age of chatter about popular education, people 
 are too often satisfied, but that he can read aloud sufficiently 
 well to be listened to by an educated person without disgust ; 
 that he can write, slowly of course at first, a hand which will 
 become a clear one ; that he knows those few and simple rules 
 of Arithmetic which he is likely to have to employ under the 
 ordinary circumstances of life ; and that he has that sort of 
 glimpse into the sciences of observation, or some of them, 
 which must inevitably result from an intelligent acquaintance 
 with the objects which immediately surround him. 
 
 It would be desirable that to these supremely necessary 
 acquirements should be added some acquaintance with one or 
 mi.re foreign languages, gained not only through the eye but 
 through the ear, but the possibility of giving that must 
 naturally depend on circumstances. 
 
 This foundation having been laid, and previous acquisi- 
 tions being perpetually revised, the next few years should be 
 given by those who can carry on their education to one or two 
 and twenty, chiefly, but by no means exclusively, to Geography 
 and History. Mr. John Stuart Mill, in his famous inaugm-al 
 address at St. Andrew's, puts forward a very diiferent view. 
 He says : — 
 
 "Who ever really learnt History and Geography except by 
 " private reading ? And what an utter failure a system of 
 " education must be if it has not given the pupil a sufficient 
 " taste for reading to seek for himself those most attractive 
 " and easily intelligible of all kinds of knowledge ? " 
 
 And again : — 
 
" But of the mere facts of History, as commonly accepted, 
 " what educated youth of any mental activity does not learn 
 " as much as is necessary, if he is simply turned loose into an 
 " historical library ? " 
 
 The answer to this is, that unhappily we do not, at least 
 in Great Britain, meet one educated youth in five hundred 
 who is even tolerably acquainted with the mere facts of History 
 as commonly accepted. Mr. Mill, as was too often the case, 
 was generalizing hastily from his own idiosyncrasy, which, in 
 spite of his splendid intellect, constantly led him wrong when, 
 stepping out of the realm of abstractions, he found himself 
 dealing with things concrete, and more especially with that 
 very curious animal— man. It was this peculiarity which 
 made him so odd, and even pathetic a figure in the House 
 of Commons, although he had done so much to teach the 
 teachers and had been one of the seminal minds of his own 
 generation, as he himself said that Coleridge and Bentham 
 had been of theirs. Mr. Mill fancied that History was a much 
 easier study than most people find it. Others make the 
 opposite mistake of over-rating its difficulty. They say, 
 " What! are you going to plunge children into the labyrinth 
 of ten thousand controversies ? " Not at all ! 
 
 Comte, quoted by his disciple Mr. Cotter Morrison, says 
 very truly " That the most important facts of History are the 
 " least dependent on being minutely verified for their true 
 "appreciation." It is these facts, and these only, which 
 I desire to get in the first instance into the brains of youth. 
 I want boys, and girls too for that matter — in the happy phrase 
 of a Cierman professor, quoted in an admirable paper read to 
 us by our friend Mr. Browning, to which I shall have to refer 
 again — " to know their centuries ; " to know, that is, the great 
 epoch-making facts of General History, and have a somewhat 
 fuller, but still very outline, knowledge of the history of their 
 own country. This should certainly be accomplished by the 
 age of 14. 
 
 There is no difficulty in finding sufficiently good books for 
 the English part of the business, indeed there are so many 
 that I will not attempt to choose amongst them ; but there is 
 great difiiculty in pointing to any brief and simple work on the 
 general history of the world to be got up thoroughly before 14. 
 It seems to me, indeed, that our Society might do a good deal 
 worse than offer a prize for such a book. As things now are, 
 the English teacher who desired that his pupils should " know 
 their centuries," would have to base his teaching upon works 
 
10 
 
 intended for a later age. But it may be asked, " How is room 
 " to be found to enable us to devote the lion's share of school or 
 " school-room time to History and Geography ? " Simply, I 
 answer, by considering what knowledge is most worth, by 
 postponing the less important to the more important, and by 
 taking things in their natural order. Up to 14 no difficulty 
 should arise. All I should demand of any fairly clever boy or 
 girl at that age (I am speaking, of course, neither of geniuses 
 nor of idiots) would be : — 
 
 (1) That he or she should read English aloud clearly and 
 agreeably. 
 
 (2) Should write a large distinct round-hand. 
 
 (3) Should be thoroughly expert in the most ordinary 
 rules of Arithmetic, especially compound addition. 
 
 (4) Should be trained from earhest infancy to use his or 
 her powers of observation. 
 
 (5) Should have gathered some little acquaintance with 
 what is most valuable in such portions of the English Classics 
 as are suitable to early life — a very small fraction of them I 
 need hardly say ; but the sooner the habit of reading the best 
 books can be formed, the better. 
 
 (6) Should be able to translate, ad apertm-am lihrl, from 
 a simple French or Grermau book. When circumstances are 
 favourable I should like young people at 14 also to speak, at 
 least. French fluently. 
 
 (7) Should know enough of drawing for purely practical, not 
 artistic, purposes, and enough if possible of music to increase 
 their enjoyment of it. 
 
 (8) Should have a sufficient knowledge of English Com- 
 position to be able to write a decently clear and grammatical 
 account of anything they may have seen. 
 
 Every one of these accomplishments can be acquired by the 
 age of 14, without making it in the slightest degree difficult to 
 give the lion's share of time for the last three or four years to 
 laying the foundation of a knowledge of History and Geo- 
 graphy, that is to say, of the theatre in which man has acted 
 and of the drama which he has performed. 
 
 It would be idle, and indeed absurd, to ask for any large 
 knowledge of either History or Geography — at this time of life. 
 If some good school Geography, say Chisholm's junior one, or 
 any other, some good skeleton History of the World, and some 
 small History of England, had been thoroughly mastered, it 
 
11 
 
 would be quite enough. I consider that under no circum- 
 stances whatever should any attempt be made to commence 
 either Latin or Greek until 14, though wherever English is 
 decently taught, that is wherever all derivations are 
 carefully mastered, a great number of Latin and Greek 
 words will have been learned incidentally before the age of 14. 
 Mathematics, too, should be utterly banished from education 
 before that age, unless in those exceptional cases where great 
 mathematical ability can be divined, as it often can early. 
 The possession of special and extraordinary gifts takes their 
 possessors quite out of the category of those about whom I am 
 speaking. 
 
 At 14 I think that boys who wish to have every edaca- 
 tional advantage should, unless they have a pronounced turn 
 for Science and no strong turn for Literature, begin the ancient 
 languages, and should continue to study them until they have 
 read whatever is supremely best both in Greek and Latin. In 
 order, however, that they may do this without sacrificing even 
 more important things, care must be taken first to banish from 
 classical teaching, where the object is to make men of the 
 world and not specialists, everything that is not absolutely 
 necessary ; secondly, to teach the ancient languages in the 
 closest connection with their history. 
 
 In order to comply with the first of these conditions, 
 all attempts to write in the ancient languages must be 
 peremptorily discarded, but Greek should be taught as 
 what it is, a spoken language. Nothing must be read in 
 the originals but what is not only admirable but so admir- 
 able that no one can be said to be educated, up to the 
 highest standard of his time, who has not read it. By a 
 man educated up to the highest standard of his time I 
 mean one who has a general notion, correct as far as it 
 goes, of the material and moral world by which he is sur- 
 rounded, who knows more or less how it came to be what 
 it is, and who is acquainted with the very best things that 
 man has said or sung. 
 
 It is only, however, a minority of young people before 
 whom it is reasonable to put so high a standard as this. 
 A great many have no turn for Literature at all ; then 
 why, in the name of folly, torture them with Latin or 
 Greek, or with any other language which is not likely to 
 be actually and directly useful to them in their passage 
 through life "? It seems to me that the learning of Latin 
 
12 
 
 and Greek is a luxui'}' which should be kept for those who 
 materially and mentally are able to afford luxuries. 
 
 The idea that there is any special discipline for the 
 mind to be got out of the study of the Classics is mere 
 nonsense, a cleverism invented by some esprit faux, and 
 then circulated by puzzle-headed or interested persons to 
 give a false air of utility to a system which can be explained 
 and fully excused as a legacy from the past, but which, 
 like some other legacies from the past, has only historical 
 right on its side — not right reason. There are two all- 
 sufficient reasons for teaching the Classics, without pressing 
 bad ones into the service. In the first place they enshrine 
 a good deal of the best which man has said or sung ; in 
 the second place, without a considerable acquaintance with 
 them a great deal of the moral world surrounding us is 
 very imperfectly inteUigible. 
 
 I used a few minutes ago the phrase " supremely best." 
 
 There is a good deal of superstition, and of what a divine once 
 
 called " behef in believing," in the common estimate of the 
 
 Classics. It is high time that some great scholar, who has a 
 
 wide knowledge of modern Literature and is also a man of the 
 
 world, should take the trouble to tell our youth what they must 
 
 read in the original, what they may read in translations, and 
 
 what they need not read at all, due account being taken of 
 
 the ever increasing amount of good literature and the wise 
 
 words of Armstrong : — 
 
 Faith I am not clear, 
 For all the smooth round type of Elzevir, 
 That every work which lasts in prose or song- 
 Two thousand years deserves to last so long. 
 
 Bifurcation should take place at 14, when those who show 
 a strong literary turn and are able to afford a long education, 
 should, as I have said, begin the two ancient languages, while 
 others who propose to go into the Army, or any of the 
 innumerable callings for which Mathematics are indispensable, 
 should give to them and other cognate sciences exactly the 
 same amount of time which the others give to Greek and Latin; 
 but in both divisions of our schools, from 14 to 18 a consider- 
 able amount of attention should be given to History and 
 Geography. For the citizens of a world-wide empire like this, 
 it is simply ridiculous that they should not be equipped with a 
 kind of knowledge which, while it is educative in the highest 
 degree, supplies instruction without which it is impossible, as 
 things now are, to order wisely either our public or our private 
 affairs. 
 
13 
 
 The old-fashioned Geography, which consisted of little 
 more than hsts of places and names, is, if not dead, yet 
 certainly dying. The newer manuals of Geography are becoming 
 manuals of earth-knowledge, closely connected with Physical 
 Science on the one hand and with History on the other, worthy 
 in fact of the impetus given by Carl Ritter to this branch of 
 knowledge. No school intended for the upper or middle 
 classes should be without one or more teachers of Geography, 
 and one or more teachers of History, Mccording to the number 
 of their scholars. In neither subject can we afford to do 
 without the services of a thoroughly competent living teacher, 
 but care should be taken not to demand too much. As to 
 Geography, I should be perfectly satisfied, if, on leaving school, 
 say between 18 and 19, the average of yountr people had 
 followed a good course of lectures and could pass a reasonably 
 stiff examination on a well compiled book of Physical and 
 another of General Geography. I will mention two which 
 seem to me very good and sufficient, though there may, 
 for all I know, be others better. The first is an American 
 book, " Eclectic Physical Geography," by Mr. Ptusseil 
 Hinman, published by Sampson Low and Co.; the second is 
 Chisholm's School Geography, published by Messrs. Longman. 
 Both are beautifully illustrated and neither extends to 400 pages. 
 
 I should like too to say just one word for Topography — so 
 potent an aid to the remembering of great events. That 
 leads me to History. As to the manner in which it should 
 be taught in schools there is really nothing to add to 
 the excellent paper, already referred to, which our distinguished 
 colleague Mr. Browning read before the Society in 1887, and 
 which is published in the Fourth Volume of our New Series. 
 Mr. Browning dwells especially upon the great importance of 
 lectures, of English essays written by the pupils on the sub- 
 jects of the lectures, and on an ascending series of books to be 
 placed in the pupil's hands — first, a skeleton book, secondly a 
 text-hook, thirdly a hand-book. A good many of his remarks 
 apply to those who show some special interest in or aptitude 
 for history, rather than to those about whom I am chiefly 
 thinking, in whose ranks, as T have said, are included all those 
 who mean to carry on their education to the usual end of the 
 University course, with the exception of persons who have 
 absolutely no turn for history at all, and such there no doubt 
 are : boys who have the same utter abhorrence of the subject 
 as the late Dean of Westminster, a born historical student, if 
 ever there was one, had of Mathematics. There is no more 
 
14 
 
 foolish waste of time than to »o ou teaching, when you have 
 once found out that the individual with whom you have to 
 deal has not the faintest glimmer of interest in the subject which 
 you attempt to teach him. And yet how constantly it is done ! 
 
 The next question which arises is, to what History must 
 the four or live years after the age of 1-i be chiefly given "? First, 
 of course, there must be the general History of the world, read in 
 a somewhat fuller compendium than that which will suffice for 
 the wants of children under 14. To find such Histories in 
 Germany would present no difficulty, but to find such a History 
 in England is a very difierent afi"air. 
 
 I really know of none published in this country ; but 
 there is an American book which may conceivably have been 
 suggested by Mr. Freeman's excellent " Sketch " and is quite 
 sufficient for all practical purposes, b}' Dr. Fisher, a professor 
 at Yale College, called " Outlines of Universal History,"" and 
 published by Ivison & Co. Dr. Fisher says at the commence- 
 ment of his preface : — 
 
 " In writing this volume I have aimed to provide a text- 
 ."book suited to more advanced pupils. My idea of such a 
 " work was, that it should present the essential facts of history 
 " in due order and in conformity to the best and latest re- 
 " searches ; that it should point out clearly the connexion of 
 " events and of successive eras with one another ; that through 
 "the interest awakened by the natural, unforced view gained 
 " of this unity of History, and by such illustrative incidents as 
 " ihe brevity of the narrative would allow to be wrought into 
 " it, the dryness of a mere summary should be as far as 
 " possible reliev'ed ; and that, finally, being a book intended for 
 " pupils and readers of all classes, it should be free fi-om 
 " sectarian partiality, and should limit itself to well-established 
 "judgments and conclusions on all matters subject to party 
 *' contention. Respecting one of the points just referred to, I 
 " can say that, in composing this work, I have been myself 
 " more than ever impressed with the unity of History, and 
 "affected by this great and deeply moving drama that is still 
 " advancing into a future that is hidden from view. I cannot 
 " but hope that this feeling, spontaneous and vivid in my 
 " own mind, may communicate itself to the reader in his 
 " progress through these pages." 
 
 This is a high aim, and in justice to Dr. Fisher I must 
 say he has worked up to it. It is very curious and very far 
 from creditable that we in Euaiand should be obliged to cross 
 
15 
 
 the Atlantic to find a proper book to be used as a Manual of 
 Universal History in our higher schools and colleges ; but the 
 very idea of History being one long drama seems to be dead in 
 this country. It will be a good piece of work done if this 
 Society can recall it to life. 
 
 At this stage of their training, students should have their 
 attention very carefully directed to Biography, and, above all, 
 to the lives of those great men who have been chiefly instru- 
 mental in forwarding the onward march of humanity. I 
 cannot point to any work which precisely meets all the re- 
 quirements of the case. It must be short ; it must contain 
 ample references to fuller accounts of the persons enumerated 
 in it; it must not be arranged alphabetically, but according to 
 the sequence of time and of the various phases of civilization 
 dealt with ; and it must be as neutral in tint as possible. All 
 these conditions, save the last, are very fairly fulfilled by the 
 New Calendar of Great Men lately edited by Mr. Frederic 
 Harrison. This is a capital book, which ought to be in the 
 hands of all educated people who can make due allowance for 
 wrong omissions and wrong admissions, but it is, in the nature 
 of things, permeated by Comtist ideas, and its use in schools 
 would naturally give rise to numerous complaints. A judicious 
 master could and would, however, make use of it. It is not 
 every boy who is inspired at 16 to read the Biographie Uni- 
 verselle through, and to finish his task in a few weeks (a 
 thing which once happened within my own knowledge), but a 
 taste for Biography is apt to be early developed, and advantage 
 of that circumstance should be freely taken to give increased 
 life and colour to purely historical study. 
 
 After the History of the world, and in some, though 
 only in some, respects more important for English students, 
 is the History of their own country, I suppose the best 
 authorities would tell us that up to the end of the reign 
 of Henry VII., it had better be read by young people over 14 
 in the History of Mr. York Powell, and that after that 
 period there are Dr. Bright's and other works to choose 
 from ; any one of which might be sufficient for the purpose, 
 Mr. Green's short History being read after the other two. 
 
 Next to English History must come for all Western 
 Europeans who wish to be thoroughly educated, the History of 
 the three great races to which we owe our civilization, viz., 
 the Greeks, the Israelites, and the Romans. From the first 
 came Art, Science, Philosophy and Literature; from the 
 second, Religion in all its higher forms, together with a great 
 
16 
 
 deal of poetry ; from the third, a very large share of the in- 
 fluences which we sum up in the words — Law and 
 Administration. 
 
 The teaching of these three great Histories should be in the 
 hands of competent living teachers, whose duty, in dealing 
 with boys on the Classical side, should be to work them in 
 with that portion of Classical teaching which consists in the 
 acquisition of the power to read Greek and Latin easily and 
 rapidly. For the attainment of this end no pains should be 
 spared, and every sort of help and appliance given, just as 
 much, and only as much, grammar being acquired as is indis- 
 pensable, care being +aken that the easiest writers should be 
 attacked first, but at the same time that no line should 
 be read which it would not be desirable for the pnpil to 
 remember to his life's end. No inferior writer should ever be 
 studied simply because he is easy, and the use of translations 
 should not only be encouraged but enforced until they can be 
 easily dispensed with. Greek should be treated as a language 
 changing slowly and gradually from the Homeric period to our 
 own, but still existing. The later Greek History and Litera- 
 ture, however, should, except in the merest outline, be kept for 
 the University. The Histories to which I suppose a good 
 teacher of Greek in this country would chiefly direct the 
 attention of his pupils would probably be Grote and Curtius, 
 but it would be a great deal too much to expect boys on leaving 
 school to pass an examination in either of these works. 
 Enough would be done if they retained a good recollection of 
 their teacher's lectures, and could pass a fair examination in 
 soQ>e short Greek History, say Smith's Student's Greece. 
 Mr. Oman's is, I suppose, the one most up to the 
 latest lights, and it is to be hoped that its able author 
 will soon add a second volume, taking care in the con- 
 cluding chapters, however briefly, to bring down the history of 
 Greece to our own days. A great deal is gained if we can once 
 make young readers understand that the history of Greece is 
 continuous, and it is quite possible to do this without indulging 
 in any silly phil-Hellenic enthusiasm, or, on the other hand, 
 speaking, as some one did, of a people which has a great 
 many merits, as composed " of the same canaille asm the days 
 of Themistocles." One cannot read the last page of Mr. 
 Oman's book without seeing that he feels that the period of 
 Greek History which begins with Alexander the Great is in 
 many respects its most interesting portion. 
 
17 
 
 Very significant is the anecdote which he tells of that 
 most remarkable man saying, when he heard of some five 
 thousand people having been killed in the Peloponnese : 
 " While we have been conquering the Great King, there has 
 " been, it seems, some battle of mice in Arcadia." 
 
 The teaching of Jewish History would present some 
 obvious difficulties ; but great progress has been made, and 
 probably the time is not far off when it may be taught 
 intelligently without fear of giving too much offence. A 
 teacher who knew his business would have in his han;1s no 
 lack of excellent guides in French, German, and even English, 
 but I know not what text-book or hand-book to recommend. The 
 Old Testament part of the excellent work called " The Bible for 
 Young People "' is very lengthy, and is written as much for 
 edification as for information ; while Mr. Robertson Smith's 
 masterly paper on Israel, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, is too 
 short and too closely packed. By the time that it has become 
 a truism that the laws governing all History are precisely the 
 same, and that the methods which lead to truth in examining 
 the annals of one ancient nation are likely to lead to it in 
 examining those of another, the defect will no doubt have been 
 supplied. 
 
 In dealing with Roman History , the teacher who has to 
 keep close to facts will have an easier task. No one, I believe, 
 now thinks it necessary to die in the last ditch for Remus, 
 Romulus and the she-wolf. Here, I suppose, the teacher 
 would encourage his pupils to read many parts of Moramsen, 
 Merivaie and Gibbon, while the text-book might perhaps be 
 the General Roman History of the second of these authors. It 
 is high time, however, that the results of recent researches in 
 this field should be incorporated in a single volume. To find 
 time for this moderate amount of Historical and Geographical 
 study ere the eighteenth birthday is reached, while keeping 
 up what I have already insisted on as necessary to be learned 
 before fourteen, obtaining some notions of the laws of health, 
 acquiring a good deal of any one Natural Science, and enough 
 of several sciences to excite an interest in them, would be 
 simple enough. Just think of the time that would be saved if 
 the whole irrational system of Greek and Latin composition, 
 and the hardly less irrational habit of learning reams of verse 
 by heart, with the object of improving that same precious 
 composition, were thrown behind the fire. Some portion of 
 the time now wasted over rules of Arithmetic, which the 
 people of whom I am thinking are never likely to have to 
 
18 
 
 use in the whole course of their lives, might advantageously 
 be given to acquiring a sufficient knowledge of book-keeping to 
 enable them to understand the accounts submitted to them. 
 Now-a-days, for all they learn at school, some of our large 
 proprietors are in the position of a gentleman whom I knew in 
 India. He had a nice compact little estate about the size of 
 the county of Surrey, he spoke a language of Aryan origin, but 
 his accounts were kept in a language of Dravidian origin, with 
 which he had no acquaintance whatsoever. 
 
 I have provided already for the case of those who have a 
 strong turn for Mathematics and little turn for Literature. In 
 the case of the others it will be quite enough that they should 
 learn jnst enough Mathematics to know what mathematical 
 reasoning means. For the ordinary purposes of life some 
 simple treatise on Logic, say that of Jevons, would be much 
 more useful. Greek and Latin cannot properly be learnt 
 without endless translating from those languages into English, 
 nor could History be s(M-iously studied without the writing of a 
 great many essays. English composition is thus provided for, and 
 I really do uni see what additional study need be insisted upon 
 before the examination on leaving school, which ought to 
 replace Matriculation. It should embrace all the subjects I 
 have mentioned, and need, I think, embrace no others, but I 
 should never dream of closing the University to persons who 
 wished to go thei'e to devote themselves to any particular study, 
 merely because they could not pass their leaving examination. 
 All that would be reasonable for the University to do would be 
 to require that such persons had a sufficient preliminary 
 acquamtance with the subject they had selected to make the 
 teaching they would receive within its walls likely to be 
 valuable to them. It is impossible to give too much encour- 
 agement, in the final stage of education, to varieties of aptitude. 
 
 I pass now to History and Geography at the University, I 
 do not know that the knowledge of actual facts to be required 
 at the end of the course need be much greater, but both 
 subjects should be studied in a larger and more philosophical 
 way than is possible at school. Great authors, hitherto only 
 known by extracts, should be sometimes wholly, sometimes 
 only partially, but always more largely read ; more attention 
 should be given to the history of human thought on 
 philosophical and economical subjects, and every endeavour 
 made to bring within the pupil's view the best that has been 
 written on the subject under treatment. Exactly the same 
 course should be taken with Greek and Latin, 
 
19 
 
 At school much would be read in these tongues which is 
 read now, though much would be omitted and some things 
 added ; but at the University everything that is of first rate 
 interest in either of them should be read — some attention being 
 given even to the Latin of the Church, and the study of Greek 
 continued right down to our own days, by the help of such a 
 book as Mr. Geldart's and in connection with Finlay's His- 
 tories. So it should be, mutatis mutandis, with French and 
 German, and with every study which was not left behind 
 amongst childish and school-day things. Everywhere History, 
 General History, History considered as one great continuous 
 broadening river, should be present and appealed to. 
 
 Filled with this idea I turned to the Statute governing 
 the Honour School of Modern History at Oxford, to see how 
 far that great University upheld the principle for which I am 
 contending. The first thing which occurred to me was that it 
 seemed very unphilosophical, as well as practically incon- 
 venient, to have a separate Honour School of Modern History 
 at all. Why should Modern History be separated from 
 Ancient History ? Is it possible to understand the first with- 
 out an adequate knowledge of the other ; and what guarantee 
 is taken before a man enters the Modern History School that 
 he has an adequate knowledge of Ancient History ? Next I 
 see that the examination in the School of Modern History is 
 always to include : — 
 
 (1) The continuous History of England. 
 
 (2) General History during some period selected by the 
 candidate from periods to be named from time to time by the 
 Board of the Faculty. 
 
 (3) A special portion of History or a spesial historical 
 subject, cai-efully studied with reference to original authorities. 
 
 Further, every candidate is required to have a knowledge 
 of Political Economy, of Constitutional Law, and of Political 
 and Descriptive Geography. 
 
 When I turn to the regulations of the Board, I find that 
 the examination in the History of England is to be on con- 
 tinuous Constitutional History, continuous Political History to 
 the beginning of the reign of the Queen, and on the History of 
 any one of seven periods to be studied in detail. All that 
 seems very good for those who are making a special subject of 
 History, but it does not in the least meet the particular wants 
 of those for whom I am pleading, that is to say, the great army 
 of people who aspire to be well-educated before they scatter to 
 
20 
 
 their work in life. Nor is the case in the least mended hy the 
 arrangements with regard to the teaching of General History. 
 These involve the study of an^ one of seven periods of History, 
 viz. : from A.D. 476 to 1085, or from 936 to 1272, or from 
 1272 to 1519, or from 1414 to 1610, or from 1610 to 1715, or 
 from 1715 to 1815, or from 1763 to 1852 ; each period being 
 studied in connection with a period of English History pretty 
 nearly corresponding to it, and also to be studied in detail. 
 All that is again very well, but it is too much to expect that 
 the people of whom I am thinking should give themselves to 
 this kind of study ; and if they did, it would not be half so 
 useful to them as a much less detailed knowledge of General 
 History. 
 
 I know, of course, that the answer which the Board 
 would give is, that they wish to discourage superficial know- 
 ledge. In this tbey do i-ightly, but no person in his senses 
 advocates superficial knowledge. What is wanted is a 
 knowledge of the great landmarks of History from the 
 beginning of time to our own day, perfectly accurate as far 
 as it goes. When once this has been obtained, literature, 
 travel, contemporaiy politics, the exigencies of public, com- 
 mercial or other business, of Law and of the Church, indeed 
 of every profession or calling, will be perpetually stimulating 
 those who have a good outline knowledge of History to study 
 more minutely various portions of it. That historical students, 
 properly so called, should carefully study special subjects with 
 reference to the original authorities is the most natural thing 
 in the world ; that they should eventually devote themselves to 
 particular periods is also as it should be. But ought they not, 
 before they do this, to have an outline knowledge of all 
 History ? And if not, why not? One result of this splitting of 
 History into periods at the University is that the same course 
 is adopted at schools, and we may any day hear a boy or girl 
 in reply to some very simple question say, " Oh ! that is not 
 in my period." Surely a system which encourages such 
 absurdities is, if not a bad, at least an imperfect system. 
 
 It is to be presumed that the Board of the Faculty of 
 History at Ox|prd had some good reason for arranging their 
 programme of studies as they have arranged it ; but admitting 
 that it is so, ere a young man is permitted to present himself 
 for Honours in the Modern History School would it not be 
 desirable that he should pass an examination in the outlines 
 of General History, and might not this examination be made 
 subservient to the wants of those whose interests I am 
 advocating ? 
 
21 
 
 I do not know whether there are any tutors or lecturers 
 now in Oxford who devote themselves to General History as a 
 whole. If there are, I suppose their teaching must largely 
 consist of calling the attention of their pupils to the parts of 
 various writers which it seems most important to them should 
 be read, and of taking care to find out by oral or written 
 examinations, and by prescribing the writing of essays, that 
 their recommendations are duly attended to. For those who 
 have not the inestimable advantage of a living teacher, the 
 book I have already mentioned — -Fisher's " Outlines " — would 
 be very useful on account of its Bibliography ; so during 
 the University period, though hardly sooner, would be 
 another American book called " Institutes of History," by 
 Dr. Andrews, of the Cornell University. It is written in 
 Telegraphese, and a strange sort of Telegraphese, but it 
 contains an excellent Bibliography and is full of pithy remarks. 
 To be able to use it, the student should have an adequate 
 knowledge of French and German, but his possession of that is 
 pre-supposed and would be tested by his examination on 
 leaving school. If once attention could be directed to the 
 enormous importance of acquiring a general knowledge of 
 History, we should soon have books of our own ; but I am 
 afraid that the detestable habit of splitting up History into 
 periods — detestable I mean in relation to the wants of the 
 ordinary educated gentleman — will last long. The rnore's the 
 pity ! for the best chance we have of building up a National 
 future which shall not shame our past, is that the large 
 increasing, and from the nature of things, immensely important 
 class for whom I am speaking, should be thoroughly acquainted 
 with all that they ought to know in their capacity of citizens. 
 Democratic institutions cannot by any possibility be long worked 
 with safety unless there is a large and thoroughly instructed 
 class to help in their working. 
 
 " Ex nihilo nihil Jit f " " Dix mille ignorances ne font 
 pas un savoir f '' Nine-tenths of the nonsense that is talked 
 and written up and down the land would never be heard of if 
 an adequate knowledge of the History of the World were one 
 of the ordinary accomplishments expected in an English 
 gentleman. I have shown, I think, that it could be quite 
 easily obtained without trespassing upon the time required for 
 any other studies which should form part of general, as dis- 
 tinguished from special, education ; upon the time required for 
 Literature and Natural Science, amongst others. I have shown 
 further, that where special aptitudes for other studies were 
 
22 
 
 present, I should be far from exacting in favour of the system 
 of education which seems to me ceteris paribus the best. 
 Nothing could be further from my wish than that any one of 
 the schools into which young men now go at Oxford or else- 
 where should lose their pupils, least of all should I wish 
 this to happen to the Modern History School. All I desire is 
 that the peculiar needs of the body of persons whom I have 
 kept in view throughout should be carefully remembered. 
 
 It seems to me that a Society so closely connected as is 
 ours, alike with the Universities and with the scholastic 
 profession throughout the country, could do a great deal to 
 effect this, and that is why I have ventured, at I fear too great 
 length, to place my views before you and to submit the same 
 to your better judgment. 
 
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LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 018 459 869 3 
 
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