HISTORICAL EADER HENRYJ.U HEPHERB UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA . < ilKX OK Received J/cnJ~ , Accession No. I V / . CA/ss No. HISTORICAL READINGS FOR THE USE OF TEACHERS READING CIRCLES BY HENRY E. SHEPHERD, M.A., LL.D. PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA ; LATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND NEW YORK : CINCINNATI : CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1881, 1884, BT D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. CopTRinnr. 1893, BY AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. BHEP. 1U6T. BD08. w. ?. a PKEFACE. THE study of history is a subject demanding the gravest consideration as well as the most delicate treat- ment. The most serious error that prevails in connec- tion with this subject is the defective and vicious method by which the teachers of history are fettered and em- barrassed. Epitomes or abridgments are comparatively valueless, except for those who have already acquired a knowledge of the subject which the epitome or abridg- ment professes to treat. The difficulty of condensing or abridging any his- torical narrative, without destroying its very life and spirit, is one long felt and recognized. The disadvan- tages of the compendium are commented upon by Bacon, in his great work on " The Advancement of Learning," in which abridgments are styled "the corruptions and moths of history." A similar judgment is to be inferred from Coke's advice to students of law, not to depend upon summaries or outlines of cases, but to consult the original and explicit report. This coincidence of opinion HIP. HIST. RDG8. iv PREFACE. is the more striking from the fact that it was, probably, one of the few points in regard to which these illustrious rivals ever concurred. Indeed, the difficulty of making a successful abridgment is recognized as far back in antiquity as the era of the Apocrypha, in which it is commented upon with considerable earnestness in one of the books of the Maccabees. In modern times, the subject of studying history, as well as the different modes in which the study may be taught, has been discussed, with great learning and clear- ness of judgment, by Smyth in his u Lectures on Modern History," Dr. Thomas Arnold in his "Lectures on M'<1 ern History," John Stuart Mill in his address before the University of St. Andrews, Latham in his treatise upon the "Action of Examinations," Dr. Wiese in his great work upon the government and regulation of the Ger- man schools, Quick in his "Educational Reformers," Bishop Dupanloup in his valuable works on education, Fe'nelon in his letter to the French Academy, Bain in his " Education as a Science," to say nothing of numberless essays upon the subject contained in various educational journals. Names and authorities might be multiplied to an indefinite extent, but those cited will suffice to show the amount of interest the question has elicited from en- lightened educationists in our own and preceding times. The fatal defect in the compendium is that it obscures the processes by which historical results are attained ; it deals in comprehensive generalizations, and yet fails to exhibit the data upon which the generalizations are based ; SHIP. HIST. BDGS. PREFACE. v it destroys the relation of cause and effect, and bewilders the mind with a complexity of details, whose significance we are unable to perceive or to apprehend. For a teacher to introduce his pupils fresh from the grammar-school course into a text-book of history, so arranged and con- structed that it requires, for its proper appreciation, a previous or an independent knowledge of the very sub- ject it professes to teach, is an anomaly that ought not to be tolerated in an age characterized by great advances in methods of instruction. It is one of the defects of the compendium method that it not only prevents us from discovering the signifi- cance and relation of events, but encourages us to draw inferences and form impressions that are utterly errone- ous and misleading. Its abuses are positive as well as negative. In all literary as well as historical study, pre- cipitate generalization is the characteristic weakness. I wish that every teacher of history and literature would carefully study Matthew Arnold's Introduction to his edition of Johnson's " Lives of the Poets," Carlyle's " Essay on Croker's Edition of Boswell's Johnson," and Meiklejohn's " Essay on the Teaching of English Litera- ture," in Kiddle and Schem's " Educational Cyclopaedia." I am aware how easy all purely negative criticism is, and how difficult as w r ell as delicate a task it is to dis- cover adequate remedies for existing evils. So far as the question of history is concerned, I do not think that a solution is hopeless. I have long advocated the begin- ning of history teaching by the use of graphic and lively BHKP. HIST. EDG8. vi PREFACE. sketches of those illustrious characters around whom the historic interest of each age is concentrated. Such books as Abbott's Lives of " Hannibal," " Caesar," " Richard III," " Mary Stuart," " Elizabeth," " Louis XIV," " Na- poleon," etc., written in narrative style, and presenting history in concrete, biographical form, are vastly supe- rior to the ordinary compendiums as an introduction to the study of history. For " history is the essence of in- numerable biographies," and from the very constitution of the human mind, which, in language, in morals, and in philosophy, first apprehends truth in the concrete, it would seem unwise to introduce the study of history without exhibiting it in concrete forms. The present work is an endeavor to test, by actual experiment, the correctness of the views set forth above. The work consists of a collection of extracts represent- ing the purest historical literature that has been pro- duced in the different stages of our literary development, from the time of Clarendon to the era of Macaulay and Prescott. There has been no attempt to preserve chrono- logical order, the design of the work being to present typical illustrations of classic historical style, gathered mainly from English and American writers. Most of the extracts are descriptive, clear, and suggestive. To create and develop a fondness for historical study a sentiment that the compendium can never infuse, but which, on the contrary, it tends to repress and extinguish have been my constant aim and endeavor. Every era of historical development, from the rise of Athenian UIP. HIST. RDG8. PREFACE. vii greatness to the accession of Victoria, has been carefully represented. Many of the selections have never appeared in any previous historical reader. A liberal share has been assigned to the delineation of historical characters. The greater number of those eminent personages around whom the interest, especially of modern history, concen- trates, are drawn by some one of our historical portrait painters, as Burnet, Clarendon, Lecky, Froude, or Ma- caulay. The editor assumes no responsibility for the varied delineations, and the differing estimates of character that may be discovered in the work. The book is totally de- void of sectarian or partisan tendencies, the aim being simply to instill a love for historical reading, and not to suggest opinions, or inculcate views, in regard to any of those great civil and religious revolutions whose effects and whose influence must remain open questions till the last act in the historical drama shall be completed. It is hoped that, if the book is used with intelligence and dis- crimination, it may stimulate its readers to seek an inti- mate acquaintance with the great masters of history rep- resented in its pages. Prescott, Motley, Irving, Froude, and Macaulay can be read with appreciative pleasure by most people of ordinary intelligence, and if the " historic sense " is once developed, the student can gradually rise to the study of the great philosophical historians Grote, Yon Ranke, Freeman, Bryce, and Guizot. This kind of historical reading is especially necessary for all teachers of history. It gives them that compre- 0HBP. HI8T. BDG8, viii PREFACE. hensive grasp of the subject without which no good results are possible. Too often the teacher of hi>t