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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 
 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION 
 
 SYLLABUS 
 
 History and Historians 
 
 H. MORSE STEPHENS 
 
 i 
 
 BERKELEY: THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 SEPTEMBER. 1905 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS 
 UNIVERSITY EXTENSION 
 
 SYLLABUS 
 
 OF A 
 
 Course of Twelve Lectures 
 
 ON 
 
 History and Historians 
 
 BY 
 
 H. MORSE STEPHENS 
 
 Berkeley: the university press 
 september, 1905 
 

 )^y/'_/ /^-^^w- 
 
LIST OF LECTURES. 
 
 1. — History in Tribal Songs and Race Epics: Homer. 
 
 2. — The Greek Historians: Herodotus and Thucydides. 
 
 3.- -The Roman Historians: Livy and Tacitus. 
 
 4. — The Medieval Chroniclers: the Venerable Bede, Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth and Froissart. 
 
 5. — History as Literature: the Revival of Learning; Machiavelli ; 
 the Seventeenth Century, Raleigh and Hobbes; the Eighteenth 
 Century, Voltaire and Hume. 
 
 6. — The First of Modern Historians: Edward Gibbon. 
 
 7.— The Beginnings of Scientific History: Niebuhr, Ranke and 
 Mignet; the publication of documents. 
 
 8. — The Philosophic Historians: Guizot, Grote and Carlyle. 
 
 9.— The Political Historians: Alison, Hallam, Macaulay, Thiers, 
 Droysen and Bancroft. 
 
 10.— The Nationalist Historians: Herculano, Palacky, Martin, 
 Green and Treitschke. 
 
 11.— The Romantic Historians: Lamartine, Michelet, Froude, 
 Motley, Prescott, and Parkman ; the place of Historical 
 Fiction : Scott and Dumas. 
 
 12.— The Modern Scientific Historians; Fustel de Coulanges„ 
 Aulard, Stubbs, Gardiner, Lea and Henry Adams. 
 
 397518 
 
HISTORY AND HISTORIANS. 
 
 LECTURE ONE. 
 
 History in Tribal Songs and Race Epics : Homer. 
 
 History is the narrative of the past. 
 
 Everything that bears a trace of the past is material 
 for history. 
 
 Institutions, battle-fields, buildings, are material for his- 
 tory as much as inscribed monuments, written charters, 
 or printed documents. 
 
 Narrative history is founded upon all accessible mate- 
 rial, and the amount of research in assembling and studying 
 this material, and the critical use made of it are the chief 
 tests of a modern historian. 
 
 The earliest narrative history as opposed to material 
 for history is to be found in tribal songs and race epics. 
 
 Since these were not committed to writing until long 
 after their composition they cannot be regarded as authen- 
 tic narratives of events as they occurred, but they may con- 
 tain memories of events and of individuals exaggerated in 
 passing from mouth to mouth through a series of genera- 
 tions. 
 
 The amount of historical material contained in tribal 
 songs and epics can be tested by the more permanent traces 
 of the past and estimated by comparative criticism. 
 
 The natural growth of legend distorts the truth in the 
 description of events, but the social customs and attitude 
 of mind of savage races can be deduced from primitive 
 songs and poems. 
 
 Sometimes the early tribal songs have been preserved, 
 as in the Norse Eddas, sometimes they have been worked 
 
np into I'ace epics, as in the Homeric poems, the Kalevala, 
 and the Chanson de Roland. 
 
 The Homeric epics: the probable method of their com- 
 position; their mythology; their legendary heroes; their 
 description of social life and customs; their picture of 
 primitive society; possible amount of truth embodied in 
 their narrative of events. 
 
 The ' ' Iliad ' ' : the story of the war of the Greeks against 
 Troy; light thrown upon the "Iliad" by the work of the 
 archaeologists, especially by Schliemann: modern views of 
 the historical value of the "Iliad." 
 
 The "Odyssey": its resemblance to and contrast with 
 the "Iliad;" while the "Iliad" is the epic of war, the 
 ' ' Odyssey ' ' is the epic of travel ; its historical value ; con- 
 clusions drawn from the story of the Cyclops. 
 
 Race epics of other races: the two Sanskrit epics of 
 India, the " Mahabharata, " and the "Ramayana"; amount 
 of historical evidence as to past events and past conditions 
 of life contained in them. 
 
 The early Celtic literature ; the Irish romances or sagas ; 
 the Cuchulainn cycle; the Ossianic cycle: the Welsh "Ma- 
 binogion ' ' ; the Arthurian legend. 
 
 The early Teutonic literature; the " Nibelungenlied. " 
 
 The Norse songs: contrast between the form in which 
 they have descended to us and that of the Homeric and 
 Sanskrit epics; probable date and place of the composition 
 of the Eddas : their value ; the Norse sagas. 
 
 The Finnish epic, the "Kalevala": its composition in 
 the eighteenth century from tribal songs; comparison with 
 Macpherson's "Ossian," also published in the eighteenth 
 century ; influence of its form upon Longfellow 's ' ' Hia- 
 watha." 
 
 The best instance of the making of an epic out of leg- 
 endary songs built around an event is to be found in the 
 "Chanson de Roland": this poem, probably written in the 
 eleventh century, purports to describe the real fight at 
 Roncesvalles in the year 778, in which Roland was killed: 
 
its leg'end of Charlemagne; its value as an authority on 
 the ideas of life of the eleventh century; light thrown by 
 the study of the "Chanson de Roland" upon the probable 
 construction of race epiCvS. 
 
 The race epics as history: blind credulity followed by 
 absolute skepticism ; the modern view of their value as con- 
 taining evidences of the past. 
 
 BOOKS RECOMMENDED. 
 The most useful translations of Homer into English prose are, 
 of the ''Iliad," by Andrew Lang, W. Leaf, and E. Myers, 1883, 
 and of the "Odyssey," by Andrew Tjang and W. Leaf, 1889, and 
 by G. H. Palmer, 1891; but Lord Derby's blank verse translation 
 of the Iliad, and Worsley's translation of the Odyssey into Spense- 
 rian A'erse, give a fair idea of the original; Pope's translations 
 fail to give the spirit of Homer. A good account of the Sanskrit 
 epics is contained in J. C. Oman's ''The Great Indian Epics," 1894, 
 and condensed versions of them by R. C. Dutt have been published 
 in the Temple Classics. The best edition of the Eddas is printed 
 with a translation into English by G. Vigfusson and F. York Powell 
 in their "Corpus Poeticum Boreale, " 1883, but an idea of their 
 spirit can be found in some of the poems of William Morris, notably 
 in his ' ' Story of Sigurd the Volsung. ' ' For the Finnish epic see 
 J. M. Crawford "The Kalevala, the Epic Poem of Finland," 1889. 
 There is no good translation of the "Chanson de Eoland" into 
 English; the best edition with a translation into modern French is by 
 Leon Gautier, 1890. 
 
 LECTURE TWO. 
 
 The Greek Historians: Herodotus and Thucydides. 
 
 The attitude of the Greeks towards history, after Greek 
 literature in prose came into being, is indicated by their 
 placing as one of the nine Muses, Clio, the Muse of History. 
 
 They did not regard history as the simple^iarration of 
 what had happened in the past, but rather as an artistic 
 arrangement of a narrative of events. 
 
 Herodotus, (born B.C. 484; died B.C. 402), has been 
 called the Father of History ; his idea was to tell the story 
 
of the struggle of the Greeks against the power of Persia; 
 with this in view he described the Asiatic peoples and then 
 gave the details of the struggle ; his aim was the exaltation 
 of Greek spirit by showing what had been achieved. 
 
 Comparison between the Homeric poems and Herodotus ; 
 their treatment of legends; their skill in simple narration 
 and description. 
 
 The credulity and good faith of Herodotus; confirma- 
 tion of many of his stories by modern research and expla- 
 nation of others by modern criticism; Herodotus told the 
 truth as he saw it, and reported in good faith tales told 
 to him; his exaggerations, as for instance in the number 
 of the soldiers in the invading Persian army of Xerxes, due 
 to a natural desire to increase the fame of the Greeks and 
 not to wilful mendacity. 
 
 The style of Herodotus : its simplicity ; he is the first 
 great story teller. 
 
 The importance of Herodotus : his influence upon suc- 
 ceeding historians ; his influence upon contemporary Greece ; 
 the vast importance of his subject, the first recorded strug- 
 gle between Europe and Asia. 
 
 Thucydides, (B.C. 471-400), the Athenian historian: 
 contrast with Herodotus. 
 
 The literature of Athens; its importance in the fifth 
 century B.C. ; the Age of Pericles. 
 
 Thucydides 's "History of the Peloponnesian War" the 
 first history of contemporary events and the classical type 
 of such histories; inevitable errors in history by contem- 
 poraries, due to lack of material and false perspective; 
 especially erroneous when such history is written by one 
 who played a part in the events he describes, as was the 
 case with Thucydides; merits and defects common to all 
 contemporary histories; special merits and defects of 
 Thucydides; his aim was not merely to describe the war 
 but to explain why Athens was defeated. 
 
 The style of Thucydides : his speeches of statesmen antl 
 generals ; his defense of his practice. 
 
The importance of Thncydides and his influence upon 
 subsequent writers; danger of the precedent he set, which 
 led later writers to believe it necessary to prove a thesis in 
 their narration of events. 
 
 Other Greek historians: Xenophon (B.C. 445-355); 
 his "Anabasis" and "Hellenica;" Polybius (B.C. 210- 
 128) ; Plutarch (A.D. 50-120). 
 
 BOOKS RECOMMENDED. 
 
 The best edition of Herodotus for English readers was published 
 by Eawlinson in 1858, but it needs to be brought up to date; there 
 are many translations of varying merit. The best translation of 
 Thucydides is by Benjamin Jowett, 1881, The best translation into 
 English of Polybius is by- E. S. Shuckburgh, 1889, and of Plutarch 
 by Clough, 1859. 
 
 LECTURE THREE. 
 
 The Roman Historians : Livy and Tacitus. 
 
 The influence of the Greek historians upon the Roman 
 writers. 
 
 Nature of the material accessible to the Roman histo- 
 rians : the annals ; family records ; state documents. 
 
 Distinction between the authenticity of material for the 
 earlier and the later history of Rome : the legendary mate- 
 rial ; modern efforts to appreciate this material ; the views 
 of Niebuhr; importance of this discussion in estimating 
 the value of tradition in constructing the history of early 
 periods; attempt to reconstruct early tribal songs; iMacau- 
 lay's introduction to his ''Lays of Ancient Rome;" Sir 
 G. C. Lewis "On the Credibility of Early Roman History." 
 
 The Roman writers treated these legends as contribut- 
 ing to prove the antiquity of Rome and thus increasing 
 her glory; in poetry Virgil does this in his "Aeneid, " the 
 epic of empire. 
 
 Livy (B.C. 59-A.D. 17), undertook to tell in prose the 
 glories of Rome; the difference between the civic and na- 
 
10 
 
 tional patriotism of the Romans as shown in Virgil and 
 Liv}^ and the race patriotism of the Greeks as shown in 
 Herodotus. 
 
 The arrangement of Livy's history of Rome into four- 
 teen decades ; only 35 books out of 140 are extant ; his 
 perspective. 
 
 The style of Livy; its simplicity compared and con- 
 trasted with that of Herodotus ; his method compared with 
 that of the writers of race epics; the speeches of generals 
 and statesmen ; their dramatic quality ; his reports of omens 
 and early Roman superstitions; his constant desire to mag- 
 nify the deeds of early Roman heroes; the influence of 
 Livy's works upon the later writing of history in Europe 
 after the discovery of them during the Revival of Learning. 
 
 Tacitus (A.D. 54-117), the other leading Roman his- 
 torian, illustrates another phase in the writing of history; 
 artificiality of his style and method. 
 
 The works of Tacitus; the "Annals" and the "His- 
 tories" deal with the period of the Roman empire, and 
 Tacitus therefore had no lack of material; he was not like 
 Livy desirous of telling the Avhole history of Rome, but 
 rather of criticizing the early Roman emperors ; the minor 
 works of Tacitus; the "Agricola," the life of his father- 
 in-law, the most important governor of Britain, and the 
 "Germania," an account of the manners and customs of 
 the German tribes. 
 
 The political animus of Tacitus; he represents the 
 school of thought with regard to the Roman empire during 
 the reign of the Emperor Trajan ; his aim not so much to 
 tell the truth as to advocate certain political views; criti- 
 cism of his account of the Emperor Tiberius; the view 
 suggested that his "Germania" was not so much a true 
 account of German life as an implied satire on Roman 
 conditions. 
 
 The style of Tacitus : he belonged to the rhetoricians ; 
 his attitude of mind compared with that of the satirists, 
 like Juvenal ; importance of Tacitus as the first type of the 
 
11 
 
 satirical historian with his eyes fixed on the present, while 
 telling- the story oi" the past. 
 
 Other Roman historians: Sallust (B.C. 86-34); his 
 "Conspiracy of Catiline" and "Jugnrthan War;" Sueto- 
 nius (A.D. 65-125) ; his "Lives of the Caesars." 
 
 Importance of the "Commentaries" of Julius Caesar as 
 material for history. 
 
 BOOKS KECOMMENDED. 
 There are many translations of Livy, but none of particular merit; 
 J. R. Seeley's edition of the first book contains a note-worthy intro- 
 duction. The best translations of the four historical works of Tacitus 
 into English are by A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb. There are 
 three excellent essays in French on the historical and literary value 
 of Livy by H. Taine, of Tacitus by Gaston Boissier, and of Sueto- 
 nius by A. Mace. 
 
 LECTURE FOUR. 
 
 The Medieval Chroniclers: the Venerable Bede, 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Froissart. 
 
 During" the Middle Ages, after the invasions of the bar- 
 barians and the overthrow of the Western Empire, the 
 classical models of historical writing were neglected in 
 Western Europe, and the knowledge of the Greek and Ro- 
 man conceptions of history was lost. 
 
 Under the Eastern or Byzantine Empire the writing of 
 history along classical lines continued but showed a great 
 falling off both in matter and style; the writings of Pi'O- 
 copius (500-565) and the Princess Anna Comnena (1083- 
 1148). 
 
 The medieval annalists and chroniclers: distinction be- 
 tween these two groups, the annalists jotting down yearly 
 what they knew or heard of contemporary events, and the 
 chroniclers attempting to weave their story into a regidar 
 record ; this work done in the scriptoria of the monasteries, 
 where alone learning survived. 
 
The monastic annalists and chroniclers wrote in Latin, 
 not in the classical Latin of the Roman historians, but in 
 the medieval development of the language; their style is 
 generally simple and readable, but is not literary; the 
 annalists bareJy state events as they occur and the chron- 
 iclers comment piously upon them. 
 
 The most famous of the early writers of the Middle 
 Ages is the Venerable Bede (675-735) ; his life as a North- 
 umbrian monk at Jarrow; his "Ecclesiastical History of 
 the English People;" its aim to show the benefits brought 
 about by the conversion of the people of England to Chris- 
 tianity; his natural bias; his materials; his style, based 
 mainly upon that of the Latin Fathers of the Church ; value 
 of Bede's work. 
 
 The English or Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; its composition 
 and value. 
 
 The medieval chroniclers of England after the Norman 
 conquest. 
 
 The most interesting of them was Geoffrey of Mon- 
 mouth, Bishop of St. Asaph (1100-1154) : his importance 
 in making and consolidating English traditions ; the Arthu- 
 rian legend ; the stories of Brut, King Lear, etc. ; the aim 
 of Geoffrey to exaggerate the antiquity of the English 
 people by giving them a legendary origin and a long record 
 of wonderful heroes. 
 
 Other English chroniclers: William of Malmesbury 
 (1090-1143) and his efforts to bring out the importance 
 of the Church; Giraldus Cambrensis (1160-1220) ; his ac- 
 count of the conquest of Ireland by Henry II; Matthew 
 Paris (1200-1259); his literary style; his account of the 
 reign of Henry III from contemporary information given 
 to him by both sides in the political struggle. 
 
 The writings of these English chroniclers typical of 
 the work done in writing history throughout Western Eu- 
 rope during the Middle Ages. 
 
 Prom the twelfth century chronicles begin also to be 
 written in the vernacular languages that were coming intc 
 
13 
 
 existence; national traditions and legends first appear in 
 the vernacular songs and poems, like the "Chanson de 
 Roland" and the "Roman de Ron;" these are followed by 
 chronicles in prose. 
 
 Froissart (1337-1410) may be taken as a typical chron- 
 icler in the vernacular; he is the chronicler of chivalry and 
 expounds its ideas in his account of the wars waged by 
 Edward III of England in France; his style. 
 
 For the next century may be mentioned Philippe de 
 Comines (1436-1509), whose memoirs give an account by 
 a contemporary of the relations between Louis XI of France 
 and Charles the Bold of Burgundy. 
 
 Had it not been for the Revival of Learning ther(? 
 might have grown from the monastic and the vernacular 
 chroniclers an independent Western European method of 
 conceiving and writing history, but the discovery and study 
 of the famous models of Greek and Roman history caused 
 imitations of them to take the place of natural development. 
 
 BOOKS EECOMMENDED. 
 The best edition of Bede is edited by Plummer, 1896. There 
 are excellent translations of Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 
 Temple Classics. There are many editions and translations of Frois- 
 sart and Philippe de Comines. 
 
 LECTURE FIVE. 
 
 History as Literature: the Revival of Learning; 
 Maehiavelli ; the Seventeenth Century, Raleigh 
 and Hobbes; the Eighteenth Century, Voltaire 
 and Hume. 
 
 The Revival of Learning- gave to Western Europe a 
 knowledge of the historians of Greece and Rome, and the 
 writing of history was thenceforward regarded from the 
 literary standpoint; the style of the writer was considered 
 more than his matter; careful students of materials for 
 historv were regarded as mere antiquarians; it was re- 
 
14 
 
 garded as the function of the historian to write eloquently 
 and to arrange his history so as to bring out political or 
 moral lessons. 
 
 Machiavelli (1469-1527) may be taken as the type of 
 the first group of writers influenced by the classical idea 
 and style; in his "Florentine History" and in his "Dis- 
 courses upon Livy" he shows the conviction that the histo- 
 rian's business is not to tell the truth but to inculcate 
 politic^al lessons. 
 
 Joao de Barros (1496-1570) may be taken as the type 
 of historian dealing with contemporary events under the 
 influence of classical models; in his "Da Asia" he tells in 
 decades, after Livy 's manner, the story of the deeds of the 
 Portuguese in Asia. 
 
 The Reformation gave rise to much controversial his- 
 tory; the work of the Magdeburg Centuriators (1559- 
 1574); Mathias Flacius Illyricus (1520-1575); the "An- 
 nales Ecclesiastici" of Cardinal Baronius (1538-1607). 
 
 The influence of classical models may be seen through- 
 out the historical writings of the seventeenth century; in 
 England, Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1616) wrote while in 
 prison his "History of the World" intended to teach polit- 
 i^a]_2essons and not to record events, while Hobbes, the 
 philosopher, (1588-1679) wrote an imitation of Thucydides 
 in his "Behemoth," or "Historic of the Civil Warres of 
 England;" in France, de Thou (1553-1617) wrote in Cice- 
 ronian Latin an elaborate history of his own times, and 
 Mezeray (1610-1683) published a history of France in 
 many volumes during the reign of Louis XIV to display 
 the glory and the services to France of the French mon- 
 archy. 
 
 The attitude towards history at the end of the seven- 
 teenth century is best shown in the "Discours sur I'His- 
 toire Universelle" by Bossuet (1627-1704). ■ 
 
 During the eighteenth century the predominance of 
 Literary style in the estimation of history reaches its height ; 
 the typical historian is Voltaire (1694-1778), whose "Siecle 
 
.15 
 
 de Louis XIV ' ' and ' ' Histoire de Charles XII ' ' are models 
 of luminous style and interesting narration, not so closely 
 based on classical rules as in former times; the influence 
 of Voltaire broke down slavish imitation of the classics, 
 while maintaining the literary theory of history. 
 
 Iu_England the typical writers of history in the eight- 
 eenth century were David Hume (1711-1776) and William 
 Robertson (1721-1793), whose works are mainly of value 
 as literajbiire. 
 
 While sty\e became the test of the historian, the anti- 
 quarians devoted themselves to collecting and editing un- 
 published materials for history; of these antiquarians the 
 most distinguished were Muratori (1672-1750) in Italy, 
 Leibnitz (1646-1716) in Germany, Dugdale (1605-1686) 
 in England, and Sirmond (1559-1651), Labbe (1607-1667), 
 and Dom Bouquet (1685-1754) in France. 
 
 The Benedictines of Saint Maur and their work; foun- 
 dation or formulation of the sciences auxiliary to history; 
 of diplomatics by Dom Jean de Mabillon (1632-1707), pa- 
 leography by Dom Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741), 
 and of chronology by Dom Clement (1714—1793). 
 
 BOOKS EECOMMENDED. 
 The writings of the authors referred to in this lecture are easily 
 accessible. The translation of Machiavelli 's ''History of Florence," 
 1872, and of the ''Discourses" by N. H. Thomson, 1883, may be 
 recommended; Barros, de Thou and Mezeray have not been trans- 
 lated into English. Kaleigh's "History of the World" fills from 
 Vols. 2 to 7 in the standard edition of his works, 1829, and Hobbes' 
 "Behemoth" is contained in the sixth volume of Molesworth's stand- 
 
16 
 LECTURE SIX. 
 
 The First of Modern Historians: Edward Gibbon. 
 
 It was during the eighteenth century when history was 
 chiefly regarded as a branch of literature and not of schol- 
 arship that the first modern historian, who foreshadowed 
 the methods of the scientific school of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, published the only historical work of his generation 
 which has stood the test of time and criticism. 
 
 Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) : his education and career; 
 his preparation for historical work ; his religious and polit- 
 ical experiences and affiliations ; his social success ; his rank 
 as a man of letters; his membership in "The Club" with 
 Burke, Goldsmith, and Dr. Johnson. 
 
 The publication of ' ' The Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire" in three parts, 1776, 1781, and 1788; the motives 
 as given by himself which led him to undertake this work ; 
 the material at his disposal ; his method of using it : "I 
 shall content myself with renewing my serious protestation, 
 that I have always endeavoured to draw from the fountain- 
 head; that my curiosity as well as a sense of duty, has 
 always urged me to study the originals; and that, if they 
 have sometimes eluded my search, I have carefully marked 
 the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage or a fact 
 were reduced to depend." 
 
 In this sentence Gibbon laid down the law which is held 
 to-day by all modern historians ; importance of this rule. 
 
 Gibbon 's definition of the chief duties of the historian : 
 "diligence and accuracy are the only merits which an his- 
 torical writer may ascribe to himself; if any merit, indeed, 
 can be assumed from the performance of an indispensable 
 duty. I may therefore be allowed to say that I have care- 
 fully examined all the original materials that could illus- 
 trate the subject which I have undertaken to treat." 
 
 "With these modern ideas Gibbon combined a breadth of 
 treatment that has never been rivaled; the scope and diffi- 
 culty of his subject. 
 
17 
 
 Gibbon 's style ; its characteristic excellence is the lucid- 
 ity which was the aim of eighteenth century men of letters ; 
 but it is a labored style and contrasts in this with the sim- 
 plicity of the story tellers, like Herodotus and Livy. and 
 of his contemporaries, Voltaire and Goldsmith. 
 
 Gibbon formed no school and stands alone in his indica- 
 tion of the principles and methods to be adopted in the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 Gibbon himself did not set out to prove any political or 
 other thesis, but his own and the succeeding generation 
 regarded his history as an attack on Christianity, and it 
 was repeatedly edited by Christian divines, like H. H. Mil- 
 man, from this point of view ; the real significance of Gib- 
 bon 's religious attitude. 
 
 The main blemishes in Gibbon's work, as tested by mod- 
 ern criticism, are due rather to lack of material than lack 
 of historical appreciation; they are, first, his failure to 
 understand the importance of the Byzantine empire ; second, 
 his ignoring of the early history of the Slavonic peoples; 
 third, his secondary and conventional account of the rise of 
 Islam. 
 
 Gibbon's "Decline and Fall" is the only history written 
 in the eighteenth century which is still cited and read as 
 an historical authority ; causes of its permanence are to be 
 found in its methods rather than in its style; yet Gibbon 
 may be ranked as the first modern historical writer who 
 holds a place both in history and in literature. 
 
 BOOKS RECOMMENDED. 
 
 The only good modern edition of Gibbon is edited by J. B. Bury, 
 seven volumes, the Macmillan Company, 1897-99. In this edition the 
 errors of detail made by Gibbon are corrected in notes, and later his- 
 torical information is summed up in a series of appendices; the edi- 
 tion is reverent and not captious. On Gibbon as a man of letters 
 see the volume by J. Cotter Morrison in the "English Men of Let- 
 ters ' ' series. 
 
18 
 LECTURE SEVEN. 
 
 The Beginnings of Scientific History: Niebuhr, 
 Ranke and Mignet; the publication of docu- 
 ments. 
 
 The principles which Gibbon laid down were formulated 
 by two famous German universitj^ professors, who deserve 
 the credit of founding the modern scientific school of his- 
 torians. 
 
 The essential part of their work was in bringing: to- 
 gether the functions of the historical scholar, the historical 
 critic, and the historian, and in pointing out the methods in 
 which scholars and critics should be trained. 
 
 Niebuhr was the first modern historical critic and Ranke 
 the first modern historical scholar; under their influence 
 the separation between scholar and writer comes to an end 
 and the historian ceased to be regarded only as a man of 
 letters and estimated only by his literary style. 
 
 Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776-1831) was professor of 
 history first at the newly founded University of Berlin 
 and afterwards at the University of Bonn ; he took up as 
 his life work the task of writing a history of Rome which 
 should end where Gibbon began ; comparison between the 
 tasks that faced him and Gibbon owing to the difference of 
 the material for early and later Roman history; Niebuhr 's 
 importance as an historical critic; first edition of his ''Ro- 
 man History" published 1811 and second in 1827-30; his 
 work now out of date from the extent of new material dis- 
 covered and edited since his time; the work of the archae- 
 ologists in elucidating early Roman history; Niebuhr now 
 superseded as an authority by Mommsen, and later writers, 
 but the importance of his work does not lie in his pub- 
 lished writings so much as in the influence he exerted in 
 founding the new school of history. 
 
 Leopold von Ranke (1795-1886) ; his career as a 
 teacher; most of the modern scientific German historians 
 
19 
 
 trained by him; his work as a scholar, notably in the brinc^- 
 insi' to light of the despatches of the Venetian ambassadors ; 
 the field of his researches was the difficult period of the six- 
 teenth century in Europe, including- the controversial epoch 
 of the Reformation; published his ''History of Germany 
 during the Reformation" in 1839; his other principal 
 works: the "History of the Popes," the "History of the 
 Religious Wars in France," and the "History of Eng- 
 land, principally in the Seventeenth Century"; in his later 
 years he widened his range and took up the idea of writing 
 a universal history ; importance of the life work of Ranke. 
 
 F. A. Mignet (1796-1884) represents to some degree 
 the contemporary movement in CTCrmany as a French his- 
 torian ; his work was objective and narrative ; he began to 
 write history before he became a scholar and published his 
 "Histoire de la Revolution Francaise" in 1824; he then 
 became an editor of documents and devoted himself to 
 elaborate studies from documents upon smaller topics; 
 ]\Iignet combined with scholarship an excellent narrative 
 style. 
 
 Since the new school of historians could not work with- 
 out materials their influence brought about the beginning 
 of the publication, at t;he_ expense of the_State, of private 
 societies and of individuals, of great collections of docu- 
 ments; in editing these documents scholars were trained 
 and the w^ork of sound scientific history made possible: 
 foundation of the Ecole des Chartes at Paris, 1821 ; com- 
 mencement of tlie publication in England of the works of 
 the Record Commission^ 1802, in Germany of the Monu- 
 menta Germaniae Historica, 1826, and in France of the 
 Documents inedits sur 1 'Histoire de France, 1835. 
 
 BOOKS EECOMMENDED. 
 
 The best translation of Xiebuhr's ''History of Rome" is by Hare 
 and Thirlwall, five volumes, 1828-45. Most of Eanke's works have 
 been translated into English, the three earlier by Sara Austin and 
 the ''History of England" by G. W. Kitehin and C. W. Boase, in 
 
20 
 
 six volumes, Oxford, 1875. Translations of Mignet's smaller works 
 can be found in the Bohn series. Macaulay wrote a review of Ranke 's 
 '■ ' History of the Popes, ' ' which is published in his Essays, and throws 
 a curious light upon both writers. 
 
 LECTURE EIGHT. 
 
 The Philosophic Historians: Guizot, Grote, Carlyle. 
 
 The philosophy of history; early attempts to deduce a 
 law from the progress and decay of races, nations, and civ- 
 ilizations ; special interest taken in such speculations in the 
 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Montesquieu, Kant, 
 Hegel, Auguste Comte, Buckle ; application of the ideas of 
 evolution. 
 
 Necessary inadequacy of all philosophy of history until 
 the facts of the past and their sequence can be ascertained : 
 not until scientific historians have discovered and stated 
 the truth as to the past can the philosophy of history have 
 any sound basis. 
 
 Danger in historical research caused by any philosoph- 
 ical conviction in the mind of the historian ; tendency of 
 the human mind to find what it looks for; Ranke in his 
 later period. 
 
 Instances in the first half of the nineteenth century of 
 historians, whose work was dominated by a preconceived 
 theory of civilization ; contrast between them and the polit- 
 ical and nationalist historians, who sought to advocate polit- 
 ical and nationalist theories through their histories. 
 
 Francois Guizot (1787-1874) ; his training; his career; 
 his services to scientific history ; his liberalism ; publication 
 of his "Histoire de civilisation en Europe et en France," 
 1828-30 ; later editions ; his theories ; his narrative histories. 
 
 Other French philosophic historians; Edgar Quinet 
 (1803-1875); Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859). 
 
 Philosophical theories brought out in the treatment of 
 ancient history. 
 
21 
 
 George Grote (1794-1871) ; publication of his ''History 
 of Greece," 1846-56; influence of his philosophical and 
 political theories in his treatment of Greek history. 
 
 Later histories of Greece based on archaeological discov- 
 eries and scientific treatment of material; Adolph Holm; 
 Beloch. 
 
 Subjective and objective treatment of history ; when the 
 writer subordinates his treatment of past events to fit his 
 personal and individual views of philosophy, his position as 
 a philosophic historian must be estimated by a knowledge 
 of his personality; importance of discounting such his- 
 tories as histories. 
 
 Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), the best example of the 
 subjective historian ; his philosophy of history ; his hero- 
 worship ; danger of the hero theory ; it may be valuable 
 ethically, but leads to a false perspective of history. 
 
 Carlyle 's works ; published his ' ' French Revolution ' ' in 
 1837, his ''Oliver Cromwell" in 1845, and his "Frederick 
 the Great" from 1858 to 1864. 
 
 Carlyle the type of the unscientific historian ; his ina- 
 })ility to handle material; his absence of critical insight; 
 his prejudices; his preference of the picturesque over the 
 true; his intense subjectivity. 
 
 Carlyle 's style of narration; its vivid word-painting. 
 
 Relations between history and biography; the psycho- 
 logical biographers; Taine's "Napoleon" a good example of 
 psychological biography. 
 
 BOOKS RECOMMENDED. 
 Guizot's works are all translated in the Bohn series. Carlyle 's 
 personality is well described in his life by Froude. 
 
22 
 
 LECTURE NINE. 
 
 The Political Historians : Hallam, Macaulay, Thiers, 
 Droysen, Bancroft. 
 
 The political bias is more common among historians 
 than the philosophical, which includes a wider range and 
 is apt to be ethical. 
 
 From Greek and Roman times much history has been 
 written to prove political theories, as by Thucydides and 
 Tacitus, to the prejudice of the simple truth. 
 
 Many modern writers, even when using scientific meth- 
 ods of research, have yet been warped by the desire to 
 prove the excellence of certain political theories or to bols- 
 ter up political parties. 
 
 This has been particularly the case during the nine- 
 teenth century ; comparison between political and national- 
 ist historians. 
 
 Sir Archibald Alison (1792-1867) may be regarded as 
 an extreme type ; Lord Beaconsfield 's description of him as 
 ' ' The great Mr. Wordy, who wrote a History of Europe in 
 thirty volumes to prove that Providence was on the side of 
 the Tories." 
 
 The English Whig historians, Hallam and Macaulay. 
 
 Henry Hallam (1777-1869) : published his ''Constitu- 
 tional History of England from 1485 to 1760" in 1827 to 
 explain the Whig theories and system of government ; its 
 merits and defects. 
 
 Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-59) ; his views on 
 history ; ' ' History begins in novel and ends in essay ' ' ; 
 ' ' History is a compound of poetry and philosophy " ; " Facts 
 are the mere dross of history. ' ' 
 
 Macaulay 's personality; his love of the classics; his 
 strong prejudices; his great learning and lack of scientific 
 training ; his rank as a man of letters ; his oratorical style ; 
 Macaulay as orator and essayist. 
 
23 
 
 Macaulay's active political career; his political convic- 
 tions ; their effect upon his historical writings. 
 
 Macaulay's "History of England" published 1848-58; 
 effect of his political views on its perspective; an apology 
 for_the^ Whig party and the Revolution of 1688 ; his atti- 
 tude towards William III and the Stuarts; merits and de- 
 fects of Macaulay as a historian ; his careful study of epi- 
 sodes like the siege of Londonderry ; his lack of proportion 
 and his prejudices ; excellence of his narrative style. 
 
 Other English political historians: J. R. Seeley (183-J^ 
 1895) ; political influence of his "Expansion of England." 
 
 The political historians in France ; their influence on 
 events; eft'ect of their studies of the French Revolution. 
 
 Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877) ; his active career as a 
 journalist and a politician; publication of his "Histoire de 
 la Revolution Francaise" 1823-27, and of his "Histoire du 
 Consulat et de 1 'Empire" 1845-62; effect of these works; 
 the legend of Napoleon ; clearness of Thiers ' narration, 
 especially of military canipaigns and battles. 
 
 Other French political historians; Louis Blanc (1811- 
 1882). 
 
 German political historians ; their ^vork for the unity of 
 Germany under the leadership of the House of Hohenzol- 
 lern, especially after 1848; attitude of Ranke and Treit- 
 schke. 
 
 Gustav Droysen (1808-84), the principal German polit- 
 ical historian; his earlier works; his "History of Prussian 
 Politics," published 1855 to 1870; his monarchical views; 
 importance of his work and his scientific method, which 
 was more marked than in the English and French political 
 historians. 
 
 Other German political historians: Heinrich von Sybel 
 (1817-1895). 
 
 George Bancroft (1800-91), the representative Ameri- 
 can political historian; publication of his "History of the 
 United States" 1834-75; his political career and affilia- 
 
24 
 
 tions : influence of IMacanlay upon him ; his use of material ; 
 his national and political prejudices. 
 
 Tendencies and influence of political historians. 
 
 BOOKS EECOMMENDED. 
 The histories referred to in this lecture are generally accessible. 
 Thiers' works have been translated into English, but not those of 
 Droysen. 
 
 LECTURE TEN. 
 
 The Nationalist Historians: Herculano, Palacky, 
 Martin, Green, and Treitschke. 
 
 The growth of the idea of nationality in the nineteenth 
 century; its efl'ect upon the study and writing of history; 
 its tendency to enlist the patriotism of the writer and warp 
 his impartiality. 
 
 The feeling of nationality was especially strong in the 
 smaller nations, which had been great in the past, but had 
 become second rate powers under modern conditions. 
 / Alexandra Herculano (1810-77), the greatest historian 
 \ I of Portugal, may be taken as one representative of this 
 \ I movement; his career; his scientific method; his work in 
 editing documents; his "History of Portugal," published 
 from 1848 to 1853, and his "History of the Inquisition in 
 Portugal ' ' from 1859 to 1863 ; effect of his work ; over- 
 throw of the Iberianist idea. 
 
 Franz Palacky (1798-1876) may be taken as represent- 
 / ing another small nation; his "History of the Bohemian 
 People, ' ' published from 1836 to 1876 ; its intense nation- 
 alism ; its reconstruction of the early Bohemian history ; its 
 scientific form and method; importance of Palacky 's polit- 
 ical ideas and his influence upon the Czech revival. 
 
 The work of the small nations in history, and especially 
 in the publication of documents on their early history; 
 Poland. Finland, Denmark, and Eomania. 
 
In large nations the effect of the national idea is to be 
 seen in attempts to identify a distinctively national spirit 
 running through the whole course of a nation's history, as 
 in ]\Iartin and Green, or in attempts to prove a national 
 spirit in spite of political division, as in Treitschke. 
 
 Henri Martin (1810-83), published the first edition of 
 his "Histoire de France" in 1833-34, and the third in 
 1855-60; his effort to find the key to French history in 
 Celtic ideas, the esprit gaulois; simplicity of his narrative. 
 
 Other French writers of this national type, notably 
 Augustin Thierry (1795-1856.) 
 
 John Richard Green (1837-83) shows a similar spirit 
 in his "Short History of the English People," published in 
 1874; his persistence in dwelling on the Teutonic element 
 in early English history; his recognition of national as 
 opposed to political history. 
 
 Other English writers of this school are J. M. Kemble 
 (1807-57) and E. A. Freeman (1823-92). 
 
 In Germany the longing for German national unity is 
 shown particularly in Heinrich Treitschke (1834-96), 
 whose teaching of history in Berlin University, and whose 
 ''German History in the Nineteenth Century," had a 
 great influence in promoting the belief in the historic unity 
 of the German people. 
 
 BOOKS RECOMMENDED. 
 For the English members of this school see ''Life and Letters of 
 E. A. Freeman," by W. E. W. Stephens, 1895, and* 'Letters of J. R. 
 Green," edited by Leslie Stephen, 1901. 
 
26 
 LECTURE ELEVEN. 
 
 The Romantic Historians: Lamartine, Michelet, 
 Froude, Motley, Prescott, and Parkman; the 
 Place of Historical Fiction: Scott and Dumas. 
 
 A group of historical writers in the middle of the nine- 
 tenth century, who were attracted to history writing by 
 the fascination exercised over them by certain topics and 
 ideas and who were more subjective than objective, may 
 be termed the romantic historians. 
 
 They were all distinguished men of letters and wrote 
 in an effective style, and paid more attention to the manner 
 of telling their story than to the matter of it. 
 
 They frankly avowed their sympathies and did not 
 aim at impartiality. 
 
 They were historical writers rather than historical 
 scholars, and were influenced in the form of their works 
 and in their desire to reproduce the atmosphere of the past 
 by the great historical novelists. 
 
 Alphonse de Lamartine (1792-1869) may be taken as 
 the type of this school of writers in France; his "Histoire 
 des Girondins" published in 1847; his historical style; his 
 graphic power ; his lack of historical scholarship. 
 
 Jules Michelet (1798-1874) has also some of the char- 
 acteristics of the philosophic and nationalist historians ; his 
 idealization of the French people; his insight; his concep- 
 tion of universal history; but he is brought into the same 
 group as Lamartine by the subjectivity of his style and the 
 absence of patient research or critical appreciation of 
 documents; comparison with Carlyle. 
 
 In England James Anthony Froude (1818-94) be- 
 longed to this group; his inability to grasp the truth 
 Froudacity, not mendacity; controversy with Freeman 
 beauty of his narrative style; comparison with Macaulay 
 his ''History of England from 1529 to 1603" in twelve 
 volumes, published from 1857 to 1870. 
 
27 
 
 In the United States Motley and Prescott belong to the 
 romantic school, and Parkman in his early works. 
 
 John Lothrop Motley (181-^77) ; publication of his 
 "Rise and Progress of the Dutch Republic," 1857, and of 
 his ''History of the United Netherlands," 1860-67; his 
 epic treatment of his subject; refused to see the Spanish 
 side; deliberate advocacy of the Dutch cause; comparison 
 with Macaulay. 
 
 William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859) also belongs to 
 the romantic school; his characteristic works are the 
 "Conquest of Mexico" published in 1843 and the "Con- 
 quest of Peru" published in 1847; brilliancy of their style, 
 but absence of critical appreciation of material. 
 
 Francis Parkman (1822-1893) published in a long 
 series of volumes between 1849 and 1892 his "France and 
 England in the New World"; in the earlier volumes, 
 especially in "The Conspiracy of Pontiac, " he shows him- 
 self a romantic historian, but as he continued his methods 
 became more rigorously scientific and his research more 
 thorough, so that his later volumes "Montcalm and 
 Wolfe" and "A Half -century of Conflict" belong dis- 
 tinctly to the modern scientific school. 
 
 The success of the great historical novelists affected both 
 the attitude toward history and the style of the romantic 
 historians; the widespread influence of Sir Walter Scott 
 and Alexandre Dumas ; the interest aroused in the past by 
 their skilful and lively narratives. 
 
 The importance of historical fiction in giving an in- 
 terest to history; it should be judged by the truth of its 
 atmosphere of past times and not by its treatment of his- 
 toric facts and personages; historical fiction owing to its 
 absence of pretence to tell the whole truth is less dangerous 
 than biased and inaccurate histories, which purport to tell 
 the whole truth. 
 
 Inferiority of later historical novelists to Scott and 
 Dumas. 
 
28 
 LECTURE TWELVE. 
 
 The Modern Scientific Historians : Fustel de Coulan- 
 ges, Aulard, Stubbs, Gardiner, Lea, and Henry 
 Adams. 
 
 Side by side with the philosophic, the political, the 
 nationalist, and the romantic groups of historical writers 
 developed the modern scientific school ; some of the former 
 used scientific methods, such as Hallam in England, Droy- 
 sen in Germany, Martin in France, and Parkman in the 
 United States, but their professed aims and their desire to 
 draw conclusions place them with the former groups. 
 
 Most of the scientific historians drew their inspiration 
 from Germany, and many of them were pupils of Ranke 
 and other professors in the German universities ; Germany 
 first provided regular university training in scientific his- 
 tory, and the scientific school is sometimes termed the 
 German school. 
 
 But these trained scholars tended to become editors of 
 .documents and writers of monographs, rather than his- 
 torians; excellence of German work along these lines; the 
 science of editing documents. 
 
 The aim of the scientific school to discover the truth 
 with regard to the past and to state it clearly, without 
 trying to prove a theory or to justify a policy; diligence 
 in research the first duty of a scientific historian, trained 
 critical appreciation of all possible material the second, 
 and impartial statement of conclusions the third; the his- 
 torical scholar, the historical critic and the historian. 
 
 The scientific historian is dependent upon the work of 
 the scholar and the critic for the knowledge of his primary 
 authorities, on which alone he can base his narrative; all 
 scientific historians are also scholars and critics, but all 
 scholars and critics are not historians. 
 
 The most distinguished scientific historians at the pres- 
 ent time are not Germans, though Germany led the way 
 with Niebuhr and Ranke. 
 
29 
 
 Importance of France in developino; the scientific con- 
 ception and methods of history; importance of the work 
 done by the Ecole des Chartes; the most readable and 
 thorongh statement of the aim and methods of scientific 
 history is Langiois and Seignobos' ' ' Introdnction to the ' 
 Study of History." 
 
 Two representative modern French scientific historians ' 
 are Fustel de Coulanges and Aiilard. 
 
 Fnstel de Coulanges (1830-1889) ; published "La Cite 
 Antique" in 1864, and ''Histoire des Institutions Politiques 
 de 1 'Ancienne France ' ' from 1875 to 1889 ; his greatness as 
 a scholar; rigour of his method. 
 
 F. Alphonse Aulard (b. 1849) ; his work as an editor \ 
 of dofiiiroents on the French Revolution, especially of the j 
 ''Actes du Comite de Salut Public"; his "Culte de I'Etre , 
 Supreme" 1894, and "Histoire Politique de la Revolution / 
 Francaise," 1901; entire rewriting of the history of the P 
 French Revolution on the basis of primary authorities. 
 
 .William Stubbs ( 1 825-1 90£), Bishop of Oxford, the 
 founder of scientific history in England ; his work as 
 teacher, when Regius Professor~of Modern History at 
 O^ord, 1866-84; his work as scholar in editing medieval 
 chronicles, especially his "Memorials of St. Dunstan"; his 
 greatest work "The Constitutional History of England" \ 
 published from 1874 to 1878. 
 
 ^amuel Rawson Gardiner (1829-1902) ranks with 
 Stubbs as a scientific historian; difference in his work 
 owing to the different character of his material; his "His- \ 
 tory of England from 1603 to 1656" published between/ 
 1863 and 1901. \ 
 
 Other English scientific historians, notably F. W. 
 Maitland, JJH.J?oiind, C- H. Firth, and James Bryce. 
 
 Scientific history in the United States; its late begin- 
 ning; difficulty in obtaining and arranging material. 
 
 Henry Charles Lea (born 1825) ; published "History of 
 the Inquisition," 1889, "History of Confessions and In- 
 
30 
 
 dulgences," 1896, and ''The Moriscos of Spain," 1901; 
 greatness of his work and soundness of his method. 
 
 Henry Adams (born 1838) ; his influence as a teacher, 
 when professor at Harvard, 1870-77; published "A History 
 of the United States under the Administrations of Jeffer- 
 son and Madison ' ' in nine volumes, 1889-91 ; thoroughness 
 of his research, excellence of his criticism and clearness of 
 his style. 
 
 Other American historians of the modern school ; Cap- 
 tain .A. T. Mahan and James Ford Rhodes. 
 
 Prospects of scientific history in the United States. 
 
 BOOKS EECOMMENDED. 
 
 There is a translation of Langlois and Seignobos ' ' Introduction 
 to the Study of History," by G. G. Berry, published by Henry Holt 
 & Co., 1893. 
 
DEPARTMENT OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION. 
 
 LIST OF SYLLABUSES OF COUESES OF TWELVE LECTURES. 
 
 1.— History of the French Revolution, by H. Morse Stephens. 
 2. — History and Literature of Russia, by Jerome B. Landfield. 
 3.— History and Historians, by H. Morse Stephens. 
 4.— The Renaissance in Italy, by Garrick Mallory Borden. 
 5.— History of Music, by Garrick Mallory Borden. 
 
 6. — The Napoleonic Period in Euroi:)e, by H. Morse Stephens, 
 
 7. — The Victorian Poets, by Frederick J. Teggart. 
 8.— History of Trade Unionism, by Carleton Parker. 
 
 9. — The Enlightened Despotism of the Eighteenth Century in Europe, 
 
 by H. Morse Stephens. 
 
 10. — The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Power in Europe and America, 
 
 by Don E. Smith. 
 
 Copies of any of these syllabuses and of the circular describing 
 the system of University Extension can be obtained upon application 
 to the Secretary for University Extension, University of California, 
 Berkeley, California. 
 
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