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HIGH SCHOOL PUBLICATIONS.—2.
THE
Study of History:
ITS FUNCTION.
BY
GEO. E. SEYMOUR.
I
UNNY, OR MIGM
OM
AUG-1908




•
THE UNIT
MICHIGAN
M
1811
·LIBRARIES ·
I

THE STUDY OF HISTORY:
ITS FUNCTION.
BY
GEO E. SEYMOUR.
ST. LOUIS :
PRIVATELY PRINTED.
1889.
ΤΟ
THOUGHTFUL PEOPLE
Young and Old.
THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
Thoughtful students of history can hardly fail to realize that great
men, great literatures, great nations are the product of some social,
religious or political convulsion. We may therefore say that in this
study four thousand years look down upon us with their massive
memories of great men and great events. Studied with a view to the
great lines of development along which nations move in their progress
from barbarism toward civilization, it loses its character as a memory
study and assumes the character of a new revelation of the powers
and possibilities of man; of his triumphs over the forces of nature in
every field of human endeavor. In this record of the birth, growth,
decay and death of a great people we feel the solemn grandeur of that
gigantic power which ruled then as it rules now the destiny of nations;
which vitalizes the intellect and gives vitality to every plant.
In the facts of history lie embedded those principles of human con-
183392
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THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
duct which mark the growth and the decay of empires. A critical'
study of those facts that we may discover those principles, is the vital
feature of all college instruction. Scientific knowledge, linguistic
skill, the discipline of mathematics and of metaphysics are simply
means to this end. For, that branch which, alone, deepens our
convictions of the value of right conduct; which makes us tolerant by
widening our sympathies; which enlarges our understanding and
matures our judgment by giving us fuller command over the rich and
varied experience of all mankind, should take no second rank among
the educational appliances employed in our higher institutions of
learning. Man augments his power to do, less by his knowledge of
facts, than by his ability to understand and apply principles. What
he can do, much more than what he knows, is the crucial test of his
real value to society. Hence a prompt recognition of this fact and its
judicious application in practice would shield our colleges from much
of the adverse criticism now leveled at them, by bringing their work
and their purposes into harmony with their many new conditions, and
the multiplied demands now made upon them. No college is bound to
perpetuate old theories however efficacious they may have been in the
past, when they are found to fail, tested by the pressing exigencies of
THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
5
the present. College life and college work are but the vestibule of
that great temple, the active, the busy world, and should minister to
its various needs, not simply in the higher walks of life, but in every
field of human activity. Its function is that of an instrument directed
to the accomplishment of a given end, and that end, not alone the in-
tellectual equipment of those who worship at its shrine, but the instilling
of high moral purposes grounded in moral convictions, and not left to the
guidance of the cold glitter of moral precepts.
That high moral purpose which should temper every fiber of a stu-
dent's moral nature, and be a guarantee against riotous conduct both
in school and in society, should be the fruit of his college instruction.
The theory of Socrates that right knowing is a guarantee of right doing,
if adapted to any age, is certainly not adapted to ours; and any sys-
tem of instruction which rests on the barren assumption that right con-
duct is the fruit of habit and not the outgrowth of deep-seated moral
-convictions, must strip our institutions of learning of much of their
power for good beyond their immediate authority, and leave our re-
formatory and penal institutions to supplement, by harsher methods, —
brutalizing in their tendency and in their effect, this defective training.
If, then, it be true in a much broader and higher sense than is gener-
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THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
ally recognized, that "History is philosophy teaching by examples,'
and that abstract truth is vitalized by illustrations drawn from actual
life, then history is an inexhaustible storehouse of intellectual and
moral instruction, and should be made the branch of study in our col-
leges, to unfold whose lessons all other studies should be made to
contribute. An abstract moral precept has little vitality unless illus-
trated and enforced by living example. History furnishes these ex-
amples, and, therefore, inculcates a sound philosophy of life.
There is no moral element in the study of mathematics; none in the
study of languages; little in the study of metaphysics; science does
not pretend to train the moral faculties, but every page of history fur-
nishes many texts for instruction of a highly moral character. Abstract
principles discipline the intellect but leave the ethical element in man's
nature untouched.
A critical discussion of the concrete facts of history appeals to both
intellect and heart, by addressing the higher faculties, stimulating alike
those faculties involved in acquiring knowledge and those employed in
deducing principles and rules of action. It is a patent fact that morak
precepts are a poor substitute for moral convictions, not only as a.
THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
7
guide but as an incentive to human action; and that an intellect highly
disciplined and a mind stored with the richest treasures of science, is
often a very pesthouse of moral turpitude.
The result of a more thorough study of history under the guidance of
a rational method, would be, not that college instruction would produce
less literary and scientific culture, but more genuine character; not a
vague knowledge of many things, but a keen and manly sense in all
things.
-
I once heard a man boast,— a man who was then studying for the minis-
try and who now occupies a pulpit, that when reciting moral philoso-
phy at college, he often held in one hand behind him, a long sliver from
the recitation bench, and a sharp knife in the other; so that, while
arguing a question of moral duty with his teacher he was willfully de-
stroying the property of his benefactors. He always told the story as
a good joke perpetrated at the professor's expense, failing entirely to
see that he was simply proclaiming his own moral obtuseness and lay-
ing bare a hideous feature of his own moral depravity. The principles
of duty and moral obligation seem never to have dawned upon his mind.
Clearly, our efforts to educate our young men to discharge not only
intelligently, but honestly, the important duties of citizenship, falk
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THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
far short of their legitimate end, if, while building up the intellect we
fail to give proper direction and sound fiber to the moral character.
This is the proper function of historical studies.
The solution of social and political problems is but half the work
that lies within the province of this study. Concrete lessons in morals
may and should be deduced in abundance from its pages. History, as
it is generally studied, however, hardly accomplishes this purpose, be-
cause our methods of instruction appeal much too largely to our memory
and much too little to our judgment.
History as a study may be pursued with one or more of four distinct
ends in view; we may read history that we may be entertained; we
may read that we may seem intelligent; we may read that we may be-
come intelligent; we may read history that we may learn to live nobler
and better lives. Failing in the last of these purposes, our reading of
history will have been comparatively valueless, and the chief function of
this study fatally neglected.
The function of the study of history has too long been regarded as
diplomatic in its character. A knowledge of history has always been
essential to the diplomatist and the statesman; chiefly, however, to en-
THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
9
able him to conceal his purposes instead of enabling him to demon-
strate the justice of his policy. A knowledge of history should be
made the constant ally of honest and noble purposes, and never, as is
too often the case, the handmaid of high-handed villainy. The cele-
brated work of Machiavelli has infused its poison into the lessons of
history, and it is an Herculean task to rid ourselves of its subtle in-
fluence. That policy may be formulated as follows: Never do openly
what you can do equally well by stealth. Always profess to a man's face
to be his best friend, that you may, without being suspected, apply the
stiletto to his back. Hideous enough when stripped of all disguise,
this vile doctrine still finds strong advocates both in public and in
private life.
One of the many general lessons which history teaches is, that when
any people sink to a level where integrity is held to be ridiculous and
common modesty is treated with contempt, their moral vitality must be
at a low ebb, and that people's regeneration is quite impossible, éxcept
through some political or religious convulsion. But if men would fol-
low their reason instead of following their impulses in determining
their rule of action, many social and political disasters which, from
time to time, overwhelm us, might be avoided, and many human lives
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THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
which now find a tragic end, would be rendered both happy and useful.
Led away by our impulses for centuries, great revolutions seem neces-
sary, to assert the supremacy of right over force; to assert the suprem-
acy of intelligence over prejudice; to assert the supremacy of the
people over the usurpations of authority; to become the herald of new
ideas and new rights by furnishing a new interpretation of old facts and
by the exposure of the fallacies involved in old theories.
The value of history as a college study may be summarized as fol-
lows: It calls into active operation and, therefore, cultivates memory;
it sharpens and strengthens the reasoning powers; it cultivates the
imagination; it extends the horizon of our intellectual vision; it
strengthens and matures the judgment; it cultivates habits of clear,
concise, vigorous and polished expression; it cultivates the habit of
sound and comprehensive generalization; it inspires a love for knowl-
edge by our contact with the great thoughts of the great men of all
ages; it confirms our confidence in the value of right conduct, by the
steady, though sometimes tortuous, advance of nations along those
lines of development which lead from barbarism to civilization; it gives
us a deeper insight into the motives which underlie human conduct,
and a wider command over those instrumentalities which are found to
THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
11
be the most potent factors in moulding and directing human conduct
and building up human character.
Few of the great branches of human knowledge have ever com-
manded a wider popularity or inspired a deeper interest than history.
Had the insight and candor of its writers been equal to their learning
and industry, the age of fable and conjecture would, long since, have
been supplanted by an age of fact and sound theory. Fact and fiction
are so thoroughly blended in the early writers on history that it is quite
impossible for any, save those who have access to the original records,
to tell just where the one ends and the other begins. Indeed, the
early records are in many instances so incomplete that none but a prac-
tical eye and a mature judgment can separate the true from the false,
and determine the relative value of much that is of little worth and the
little that is of real value. Clearly, no sound philosophy of history
is possible until the facts upon which that philosophy is based
have been critically sifted. To reason upon assumptions not borne
out by facts, is to impose on the credulity of mankind and give the
form of sound knowledge to much that is wholly unworthy of our
belief.
12
THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
The power to keep clearly and constantly in mind the distinction
between what is true and what is false, what is valuable and what is
worthless, is a habit of mind best acquired by the advice and example
of a college instructor. Thus the student may be made to realize that
the great epochs of history constitute an order of sequence quite as
much as the facts and principles of science; an order of sequence less
clearly defined it may be, but essential to the interpretation of their
leading events. History, regarded as a fortuitous concourse of events,
has little meaning and less value.
True, it is often quite difficult to fix the line of demarkation between
fact and fiction, history and myth. Myth is born of the fancy in the
twilight of tradition; and tradition is an unsafe guide, since it is equally
inventive and oblivious, inventive, for purposes of embellishment,-
oblivious, for the purpose of suppressing truth. It is by such a study
of history that we gain a truer historic point of view; a point of view
that gives to the facts of history a truer perspective. Such a method of
study enlarges the understanding and matures the judgment, a result
that can be realized alone by interpreting the facts of history, and never
by merely memorizing them. Memorizing the details of history simply
burdens the memory without vitalizing the intellect or fortifying the
THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
13
moral character. Indeed, in so far as memory is burdened with details
judgment is dwarfed and reason paralyzed.
Another serious difficulty encountered in this study lies in our failure
to mark the distinction between fact and inference; for, any conclu-
sion based on inference mistaken for fact, widens the gap between
truth and error, and plunges us into a maze of uncertainties from which
we find it difficult, if not quite impossible to extricate ourselves.
The comprehensive character of this study makes a rational method,.
in dealing with its many lines of intricate and profound thought, im-
perative. The legitimate end of historical investigation may be for-
mulated thus: Along what general lines of development do nations move
in passing from barbarism to civilization? A few of these lines of
growth are here indicated:
1. The first leads to national unity, as national unity is essential to
national greatness.
2. The second leads to the substitution of Christianity for pagan-
ism.
3. The third leads to the establishment of a system of justice for the
crude idea of personal vengeance in which that system had its incep-
14
THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
tion, through successive changes which have given us our complicated
system of Law and Equity.
4. A fourth leads to a national government with its intricate devices
for collecting and disbursing revenue, perpetuating its own power and
enforcing its authority.
5. A fifth is found in the growth of towns. These render organized
effort possible; as distributing centers, they facilitate commercial ex-
changes; lead to the division of labor and to the greatly increased pro-
ductiveness of industry; stimulate the growth of trade; multiply in-
dustrial pursuits; spread commerce between nation and nation; raise to a
higher level the average intelligence of all classes; strike down the gospel
of brute force and enthrone the gospel of intellectual and moral integrity.
6. A sixth line of development leads to the establishment of schools
and colleges. The intellectual and moral fiber of the nation finds its
central forces in its institutions of learning. The thought of the cen-
turies is the fruit of their teaching. True, many men have become
great without attending a university; but none without employing
directly or indirectly the means furnished by our universities.
7. A seventh leads to the adoption of a national language and the
growth of a national literature.
THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
15
$
8. An eighth leads, in modern Europe, to that intellectual and re-
ligious fermentation which brought in its course the revival of learning,
and culminated in the Reformation. In this, as in most controversies,
the right was not wholly with either party; but convictions, fortified by
animosities, are often blind to the real truth; and the men of those times
seem to have fallen into grievous errors in both doctrine and practice.
But since the intellectual fecundity of the last two centuries is the fruit
of that bitter struggle, the world has little cause to regret the issue.
Any great historic movement, studied in a catholic spirit, must lead
to broader views of life and sounder principles of action. Hence these
great lines of development, together with many minor ones along
which nations move in their progress from barbarism to civilization,—
are worthy of the profoundest study; and they constitute the warp and
woof of history, a study that exercises every faculty to its utmost
tension, and calls into service, in its endeavor to give a rational
account of the growth of any people, every branch of human learning.
The impetus given to inquiry since the Reformation vitalized the
intellect of Europe, is seen in the growth of institutions of learning;
in the increase of books; in the rapid growth of industries; in the
Uor M
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THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
fertility of inventive genius; in the higher average of general intelli-
gence; in the creation of new industries; in the increased protection
given to human life under better sanitary regulations; in the increased
security given to both life and property by the pervading sense of
justice in the community; in the elevation of moral character by forti-
fying it by moral convictions in lieu of moral precepts.
This, and much more, is the inheritance of our age; ours to enjoy;
ours to perpetuate. And the main purpose of college instruction in
history, when true to its function as an interpreter of the phases of
intellectual, moral and material prosperity of a people, must always be
to furnish our students a rational method of pursuing their investiga-
tions along these several lines of national development, so that they
may acquire habits of sound and comprehensive generalization, and,
by rising to a higher point of view, may sink the multitude of petty
details incident to certain times and certain places, in the deeper and
broader questions touching the moral and intellectual growth of the
human race; and learn thereby to fortify their own moral character by
contact with all that is noble and grand and good in the lives of those
great men and great women who, by their genius, have brought our
race from barbarism to its present advanced state of civilization.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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