rui_ANU u. HUS5EY
U. C. L. A
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
THE
TEACHING OF HISTORY
DR. OSKAR JAEGER
TRANSLATED BY
H. J. CHAYTOR, M.A.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
C. H. FIRTH, M.A.
REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1915
ML
(j^Jh UNIVERSITY
jA|r- SANTA BARBARA
TRANSLATORS NOTE
Of the many educational institutions in Germany,
four are mentioned in the following pages : the
Gymnasium, or classical school ; the Realschule, and
the Oberrealschule. The two latter correspond to
our " modern school," and give a modern education,
teaching no Latin or Greek. The Realgymnasium
is a compromise between these two types, and gives
a modern education, while at the same time teaching
Latin. All are organized upon the basis of a nine
years' course, and the forms or classes are arranged
as follows, beginning with the lowest :
Sexta
translated First Form.
Quint a -
,, Second Form.
Quarta -
Third Form.
Unter Tertia -
,, Lower Fourth Form.
Ober Tertia -
,, Upper Fourth Form.
Unter Sekunda
,, Lower Fifth Form.
Ober Sekunda -
,, Upper Fifth Form.
Unter Prima -
„ Lower Sixth Form.
Ober Prima
„ Upper Sixth Form.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY
PAOES
Relation of the Classical and Modern School to history-
teaching — Nature of the Classical School — What is
history ? — Goethe's words upon enthusiasm — The
objective method of historical narrative — How far
possible— The history teacher and literature — In what
class should history teaching begin ? - - 1-14
I
PRELIMINARY STAGE
FIRST AND SECOND FORMS
History teaching and the training of the historical sense —
Influences upon the latter concurrent with the history
teaching — Latin — German — Historical material in the
reading-book is not historical teaching — Religious
instruction the first form of historical teaching — Im-
portance of " Bible history " — Geography — Different
position of the modern school — Its want of the his-
torical language, Latin .... 15-30
II
INTERMEDIATE STAGE
FROM THE THIRD TO THE LOWER FIFTH FORM
True historical teaching first possible in the Third Form —
Reasons for this — Preliminary questions — Distorted
vii
viii CONTENTS
PAOKS
views The proposal thai history should be taught
backwards B [in with the history of antiquity, of
the Greeks and Romans Reasons for this - 31-36
THIRD FORM
The period to be Btudied -Pupils 1 character at this stage —
Relationship oi hi itory to the other subjects of study :
I ii. French, Divinity, German, geography — Period
tn l«' Btudied by the Third Form — Object to be aimed
at — Means of instruction— The text-book — Its require-
ments and mistakes — Tho teacher and his lecture —
Relation be1 ween led ore and text-book — Moral effects
— Exaggeral ions - Avoidance of preaching — Homework
In be given rarely, and to be moderate in amount —
Revision of two kinds — The revision of long sections —
The first training in using historical material already
learnt — Leading ideas for such revisions — Completion
of the period set to the Form - - - 36-50
FOURTH FORM
The course laid down in the Prussian syllabus — The pupils'
character at this stage — The need of discipline — The
influence of patriotic motives — A glance at earlier
syllabuses — The influences of other subjects upon his-
torical training- (.reek and Latin — Caesar and Xeno-
phon French and ESnglish modern schools — German
and Divinity Bistorical instruction and geography —
Criticism of the Prussian regulations for teaching the
latter subject — Mode of procedure in the Upper Fourth
— Text-boob to be used differently in the Third and .
Fourth Form The teacher's lecture — Xo enforced
enthusiasm— How a nation can be told the truth—
The treatment of medieval history — Difficulties —
[ecclesiastical and dogmatic movements — The period
to lie covered by the Upper Fourth — The religious
difficulty arising after 1517, partially recognized and
ted Some counter-home influences — Re-
vision General revisions for individual lessons —
Classical and modem schools - - - 57-93
CONTENTS ix
PAGES
LOWER FIFTH
Characteristics of this Form as concluding a school course —
Influence of other subjects upon historical teaching —
Greek, Latin, French, German, history, and geography
— Importance and treatment of the latter — Connexion
of the utilitarian and scientific elements — The period
to be covered by the Lower Fifth — Consequent diffi-
culties — Procedure to be followed in the distribution
of the whole — Introduction — A history of Branden-
burg-Prussia — Principles of description — Economic
information — Detailed teaching and its limitations —
Concluding point — Style of teaching — The extempore
lecture — Revision — The taking of notes — The practice
of oral revision — General revision — Home reading and
other modes of stimulus - - - - 93-117
III
THE HIGHER STAGES
UPPER FIFTH, LOWER SIXTH, UPPER SIXTH
The second progress through history begun — Upper Fifth
side influences from Divinity, German, French, Latin,
Greek, geography — The historical teaching — The
period to be covered in Prussia — The treatment of
ancient history with reduced time at disposal —
Pictures as a teaching means — Home reading — Ex-
tempore lecturing as before — Revision — Consideration
of the " Compositions in Miniature " of the Prussian
syllabus - - - - - - 118-139
SIXTH FORM
The period to be covered — Influence of the various subjects
of instruction upon the education of the pupil and
upon the historical side of this education — German,
Divinity and languages — Source-books, so called —
Latin and Greek text-books historical sources in the
x CONTENTS
highe ' ena oi the term Branch and English from
this point oi view— Their various importance in the
olassioa] and modern schools — Applied geography —
The distribution of the period to be covered — Con-
sideration of economic teaching — "To the present
day " — Text-book — Lecture — Medieval history — Its
difficulties -Nature of the material — The religious
difficulty The trial of Hubs— The history of the
Reformatio]] to 1648 Modem history from the
point of view of general European and German
history— Arrangement and distribution of the matter
in the Lower and Upper Sixth — Tho first period, 1517-
1648 The second period and its three sections — The
third period from 1789 onwards — Its treatment — Tho
lasl sections, 1863-1871 — Leading ideas for revisions —
Character of the instruction at this stage — Concluding
remarks 139-193
APPENDIX
Lecture to a Third Form, " After tho Battle of Carinas " —
To a Lower Fourth Form, " Events after Canossa " —
To an Upper Fourth Form, " Revisions " — To a Lower
Fifth Form, "Condition of the German Empire in the
eighteenth century" (before 1789) — For a Sixth Form,
eighty-six questions as ideas for revisions, or for oial
work in the school-leaving examination - - 194-222
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Jaeger's book will be useful to English teachers
for many reasons. It supplies a picture of the
ordinary method of teaching history in Prussian
schools, both classical and modern. It explains
the aims which that teaching is meant to attain, the
reasons which dictate the choice of particular his-
torical periods, and determine the order in which
those periods shall be studied, and the relation of
history to other studies forming part of the course.
Without entering too much into detail, it gives a
sufficient number of examples and particulars to
make the general principles upon which the course
is based perfectly clear, and to show how it works in
practice.
The practical object with which the book is
written increases its value. Its aim is limited.
Dr. Jaeger does not wish to set forth a better
system of teaching history, but to explain one which
actually exists. Now and then he criticizes it or
suggests some modification ; he is somewhat con-
servative, and inclined to think that recent changes
have not been altogether improvements. But he
xii INTRODUCTION
remains throughoul a schoolmaster writing for
other schoolmasters, in order to show them, by the
light of bis own experience, how to make the b< b1
of the system they have to work. Having had
fifty years' experience, he is able to understand all
the difficulties which a teacher encounters in the
attempt to carry out one of these comprehensive
schemes of historical instruction, and knows how
they can best be overcome. The scheme itself is
one wliieh deserves careful consideration, for the
curriculum of the Prussian secondary schools was
carefully planned to begin with, and carefully
revised at intervals by the light of expert criticism.
It represents a gradual growth, and has stood the
test of time.
For these reasons it seemed desirable to publish
a translation of Dr. Jaeger's book. The problems
which a teacher of history has to solve are the same
in all countries, however much their educational
systems differ. Therefore, although the organiza-
tion of English schools, and the conditions under
which history has to be taught in them, may differ
very widely from those which exist in Germany,
there is much to be learnt by English teachers from
the study of the system of historical education
which these pages set forth. The conditions are,
indeed, very different. One great distinction be-
tween German Gymnasien and English public schools
is this. The German educational system pre-
snpposes a nine years' course passed in one school ;
the English system usually involves three or four
INTRODUCTION xiii
years spent at a preparatory school, followed by
five or six at a public school. It is plain that the
carrying out of a systematic scheme of historical
instruction, or instruction of any other kind, is far
more easily effected under the conditions which
prevail in Germany than it would be in England.
For here, as we all know by the published reports
of their discussions, there is no agreement between
the headmasters of the public schools and the
headmasters of the schools which prepare boys for
them on the most fundamental questions relating
to the curriculum.
A second difference in organization is this. The
existence of a fixed curriculum like the German one
presupposes and necessitates a certain fixity and
unity in the constitution of each form. German
boys remain in the same form for a year together,
and then move up in a body to the next form. It
is therefore possible to arrange that a boy shall
go through a certain period of history one year and
another period the next year, finishing one before
he proceeds to the next. In an English public
school, with terminal or half-yearly promotions of
the top boys from one form to another, the com-
position of a form is continually changing. This is
a real obstacle to any consecutive course of historical
study, though it may be partially overcome by
various expedients.
Another principle involved in the existence of a
fixed curriculum is the assignment of a definite and
an adequate amount of time to each particular
xiv INTRODUCTION
subject. Tn the Prussian curriculum, for instance,
tun or three hours a week during the whole of a
I p. (v's school life are devoted to history. For without
a definite and an adequate allowance of time through-
out no consecutive treatment of the subject would
l>r possible, still less any scientific or scholarly
beaching. In English public schools, however, the
time allotted to the subject varies from school to
school, and from form to form in the same school,
according to the caprice of individual head masters.
One head master may assign an adequate number of
hours to history; another may stop the study of
history altogether for the classical side at a certain
form in the school, and continue it only on the
modern side, or in the army class ; a third, still less
intelligent, may seek to banish it altogether to
preparatory schools.
All these eccentricities are still possible, although
there has been in the last twenty years some improve-
ment in the teaching of history in the public schools
and in secondary schools in general. The German
system postulates the existence of a central authority
with definite ideas as to what boys should learn at
school, and power to enforce the adoption of its
ideas. That is the fundamental difference. In the
case of English secondary education there is no such
authority. Instead of it there are some dozens of
authorities which seek to influence the teaching given
in schools, and do it by prescribing examinations
rather than by coming to some agreement as to the
best kind of curriculum for each particular type
INTRODUCTION xv
of school. There are Government examinations
such as those for the army and navy and the various
branches of the Civil Service, and some of those
conducted by the Board of Education. There are
the Universities, old and new, with their entrance
examinations — or preliminary examinations of much
the same nature as entrance examinations — and
with scholarship examinations established by various
colleges, and intended to reward proficiency in
various subjects. There are special boards set up
by the Universities for the special benefit of schools,
such as the Oxford and Cambridge " Locals " and
" Joint Board," each with its different examination.
Last of all come special examinations, such as those
for solicitors or chartered accountants, and those of
associations, such as the College of Preceptors.
All these various examining authorities differ as
to their requirements. There is no agreement
amongst them on the question whether boys ought
to learn history at school or not. It is a necessary
subject in examinations for naval cadets and naval
clerks, in the qualifying examination for the army,
and in the matriculation examinations of the Scottish
Universities, the Universities of Wales and of
Birmingham, and the four new Northern Uni-
versities. It is an optional subject in the schools
examinations established by Oxford and Cambridge,
and no knowledge of history is required for admis-
sion to either of those ancient seats of learning.
This uncertainty on a fundamental question pre-
vents history from obtaining its proper place in the
XVI
INTRODUCTION
ourricu] As greal an obstacle to the efficient
t , aching of I be subject , where it is taught in schools,
[e the disagreemenl between these examining bodies
as to Hi' amounl of history and the kind of history
required. When it is a necessary subject candidates
are usually required to pass in the Outlines of English
History, or, as the Scottish Universities better define
it, of British History. The Oxford and Cambridge
Bohools examinations require portions of English his-
tory, but disagree as to the length of the portions and
as to the question where any particular period should
begin or end. In their preliminary, junior, senior,
and higher examinations, the historical demands of
the Oxford and Cambridge Locals disagree, and the
examinations of the Oxford and Cambridge Joint
Board introduce new disagreements and additional
complexity.
What are the results of this superabundance of
examining authorities with their conflicting require-
ments \ One result is that the systematic and
thorough teaching of history in schools is rendered
impossible. Another is that advanced teaching of
history in the Universities is rendered excessively
difficull . Boys study a period or an epoch at school
without properly learning the outlines of the political
history of the British Empire. So out of half a dozen
men beginning to read for the Modern History School
.it Oxford or Cambridge, one knows the Tudors,
another the Stuarts, a third the Hanoverian period,
and others other scraps, but they have not all six
the common stock of sound elementary knowledge
INTRODUCTION xvii
which is the necessary basis for University teaching.
Every college history tutor has to spend much of
his time in teaching undergraduates elementary
historical facts which they ought to have learnt at
school. This is detrimental to the tutor himself,
and lowers the standard of teaching at the Uni-
versities.
The existence of a school curriculum imposed by
Government has various drawbacks, but they are
less serious than those which arise from the absence
of any generally-accepted scheme of studies, and
from the pressure of discordant examinations.
Whilst we criticize the rigidity of foreign systems,
we sanctify the anarchy of our own by baptizing
it " elasticity."
In such a condition of things all that English
teachers of history can do — until secondary educa-
tion in all its branches is taken in hand by our
Government — is to imitate the example of American
teachers of history. Finding the subject neglected
or badly taught in American schools, they proceeded
by forming local and general associations, and by
holding conferences, to arrive at some agreement
amongst themselves as to the best methods of teach-
ing, and the best kind of curriculum. Having reached
a ' substantial agreement ' on these points, they went
on to attempt to influence the makers of school
programmes and the authorities controlling entrance
examinations to colleges and Universities. This
movement, which began in 1891, has met with a
considerable amount of success. " The progress
b
xviii [INTRODUCTION
ih.it has been made during the last ten or fifteen
years is encouraging,' 9 writes an American professor.
"Although history does not yet receive the recogni-
tion w hit 'h is due to so important a subject, its value
is better understood, its objects are more clearly
defined, the methods of teaching it are more fully
developed. Some things remain to be done. At
present in the elementary schools, and to a large
extent in the secondary schools, the subject is
assigned to teachers who know little about it, and
who have never been adequately trained to teach it.
A little study of history in college is not enough, and
even this is usually lacking. The remedy here can
come only through the strengthening of the college
work in history, and through more adequate courses
of instruction in the normal schools. Quite as
important as this is the realization on the part of the
makers of programmes that we live not merely in
the United States, but also in the world. Another
decade should not pass before the work in history
in the American schools is made as comprehensive,
and is entrusted to as well-trained teachers, as is the
case in France and in Germany." *
American teachers reached the " substantial
agreement " Professor Bourne speaks of not only by
means of repeated discussions amongst themselves,
but by means of careful inquiry into the systems of
historical education pursued in various European
states. Reports were drawn up on the teaching of
* H. E. Bourne, The Teaching of History and Civics in (he
Elementary and Secondary School, p. 76 (Longmans. 1903).
INTRODUCTION xix
history in Germany, France, and other countries in
order to supply the members of the American
Historical Association with exact information as to
what was actually done in foreign schools, and with
the materials for forming a judgment as to what
should be done in their own.* Amongst other
things they inquired into historical education in
English schools, and their report states that, " owing
to the well-known chaotic condition of English
secondary education," they are unhappily prevented
from saying what our system is. However, it is
not this incidental criticism that concerns us just
now, but the practical and scientific manner in
which the American teachers set to work to solve
their own problem. That is what we ought to
imitate. Only by a similar process will it be
possible for English teachers of history to arrive at
sound conclusions, and to come to some consensus
of opinion amongst themselves as to the best
historical curriculum for English schools. Dr.
Jaeger's book has been translated as a contribution
to this object — that is, in order to supply English
teachers with facts which will help them to form a
right judgment on questions of principle. The
system described is not held up as a copy to be
imitated, but as a solution of the question we have
to solve which is worth studying and understanding.
To make this understanding easier the translator,
* The Study of History in Schools: Report to the American
Historical Association by the Committee of Seven (Macmillan,
1903).
b—2
xx INTRODUCTION
as he explains iii Ins prefatory note, has rendered
the names of the forms in a German school, not by
their literal meaning, hut by their equivalents in
Knglish nomenclature. In the tabular statement of
the historical curriculum of a Prussian gymnasien
which follows, the same method has been adopted,
but the German names of the forms are given in
brackets in order to facilitate comparison with other
accounts of German education. A good description
of the whole curriculum, of the various kinds of
schools, and of the history and organization of
secondary education in Germany will be found in
J. E. Russell's German Higher Schools (Longmans,
1905).
PRELIMINARY STAGE
First Form (Sexta) — Second Form (Quinta)
Age of boys from nine to eleven or eleven and a
half. In both forms the work is not, in the strict
sense of the word, history, but rather a preparation
for it. It is regarded as part of the teaching of
German. History is replaced by tales of the great
men of ancient, medieval, or modern times, and by
the legends of classical antiquity. In the first form
four hours a week are devoted to these subjects ; in
the second, three. In both forms two hours a week
are devoted to geography.
INTRODUCTION xxi
INTERMEDIATE STAGE
Third Form {Quarto)
Outlines of Greek History to the death of Alex-
ander, and of Roman History to the death of
Augustus, two hours a week. Two hours a week
are also devoted to the geography of Europe, and
three hours a week to German literature and German
composition.
Lower Fourth Form (Unter-tertia)
The history of Germany up to 1517, two hours a
week. Geography, the non-European continents
and the German colonies, one hour a week. German
literature, two hours a week.
Upper Fourth Form (Ober-tertia)
The history of Germany from 1517 to 1740, two
hours a week. Geography of the German Empire,
one hour a week. German literature, two hours a
week.
Lower Fifth Form (Unter-sekunda)
German history, 1740 to 1871, two hours a week.
Political geography of Europe, one hour a week.
German literature (Schiller's plays, etc.) and com-
position, three hours a week.
xxii INTRODUCTION
HIGHER STAGE
Ii'i'ii: Fifth Form (Ober-sekunda)
Ancient history to the fall of the Western Empire
in A.i). 47(>. Geography ceases to be an independent
subject, though some geographical teaching is given
in connexion with the history studied. Three hours
a week is allotted to the joint subject. German
literature and composition also obtain three hours a
week.
Lower Sixth Form (Unter-prima)
European history from 476 to 1648. Geography
in connexion with the history studied, as in the class
below. Three hours a week for the joint subject.
German literature and composition, three hours a
week.
Upper Sixth Form (Ober-prima)
European history from 1648 to 1871, with the
briefest sketch of events subsequent to 1871, three
hours a week. Geography only so far as it is con-
nected with the history studied. German literature
and composition, three hours.
In constructing tins outline of the historical
curriculum of the Prussian classical schools, it
seemed unnecessary to add particulars as to that of
the modern schools, winch is essentially the same.
INTRODUCTION xxiii
But it seemed desirable to insert some particulars as
to the two studies most closely related to history —
viz., geography, and the national literature and
language. Further details as to those two studies
will be found in Dr. Jaeger's pages.
The principles underlying the curriculum are
plainly apparent. In the first place, the study of
history is carefully correlated with kindred studies
so far as it seems possible. Very close correlation,
as Dr. Jaeger points out, is not always either possible
or desirable. History is comprehensively studied ;
the course includes European history as well as
ancient history and national history. It is con-
secutively treated ; boys begin with ancient history,
and proceed to modern history only after they have
some acquaintance with the remoter past. In the
study of national history the chronological order is
strictly adhered to. Thus the sense of continuity
and development, which is the essence of history, is
preserved and fostered, instead of being destroyed as
it is by our method of teaching shreds and patches
of history.
Another characteristic also needs noting. In the
German curriculum there is what Dr. Jaeger terms
" a twofold progress through the centuries," or, as we
should say, there are "two cycles." In the inter-
mediate stage boys go through the outlines of
ancient and modern history from the time of the
Greeks to the nineteenth century. In the higher
stage they go over the same ground again, treating
the national history no longer as a separate subject
xxiv INTRODUCTION
but as part of European history. The arguments in
favour of this plan are obvious. It recognizes the
difference between the powers of the boys' mind at
different ages, and thus obviates the common
objection that adherence to the chronological order
obliges boys to study the most difficult periods of
history when they are least able to understand
them. It allows a more thorough and a more
scientific treatment of the subject during the higher
stage, because a certain basis of elementary know-
ledge has been assured.
This particular characteristic appears not only in
the Prussian, but in all other German schemes for
the teaching of history in schools, and reappears, too,
in the curriculum of French secondary schools. A
principle on which there is so general a consensus of
expert opinion should become an axiom with English
teachers of history. Our object should be to adapt
the results of European experience to English
needs. At present in English historical education
many things seem to be accepted as fixed principles
which are merely local prejudices, or else traditional
opinions which have never been rationally recon-
sidered. Such, for instance, are the prevalent views
that the teaching of epochs is more easy and profit-
able than that of outlines, that European history is
too difficult to be taught in schools, and that history
is a subject which may usefully be studied in the
lower forms, but can safely be omitted in the higher
forms.
C. H. FIRTH.
THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
INTRODUCTORY
The following pages do not claim to propose any
reform or transformation of historical teaching in
our German secondary schools and in kindred or
parallel educational institutions ; still less do they
attempt to base any pedagogic theory of the teaching
of this subject upon psychological or educational
considerations ; nor, again, do they claim to formu-
late the true task and the ultimate object of his-
torical teaching, as though these were yet unknown.
So far as we can see, the teaching of history in our
secondary schools requires no organic reform or
modification of any radical kind, any more than
has been necessary in our Prussian and German
secondary school system. All that is required is
prudent guidance, which can be gained by careful
consideration and continued learning on the part
of those entrusted with this instruction ; in simpler
words the chief requirement is good teachers,
recognized as such because they steadily improve
their teaching powers, and not because they write
or even read a great deal about the reform of the
instruction entrusted to them. The author can
1
2 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
look back upon an experience of fifty years of his-
torical teaching — an experience that has forced him
to examine the subject from the most different
points of view. He has read and heard many
discussions upon the subject, and has himself
written and spoken upon it. He does not, however,
propose to quote from these sources,* but merely
to expound what his own mistakes and investigations
have taught him, docendo discens, in the last fifty
years. He thus proposes to attack the problem in
a more concrete manner than the majority of discus-
sions upon it are able to do, and to consider upon
what points the teacher's attention should be
directed who has to teach history at any stage within
our German educational institutions, whether they
contain nine, seven, or six forms, in this twentieth
century.
As we shall see, the problem is both simple and yet
comprehensive.
These institutions are divided into classical and
modern schools — into schools with or without Latin,
to use the popular expression. Hence it is obvious
that in discussing history and its teaching we must
direct our attention in the first place to the classical
* The literature of the subject is to be found admirably
complete in Schiller, Handbuch der praktisclien Pddagogik, 2,
p. 535 ff. Mention must also be made of the Methodologie de
V ' enseignement moyen by a Belgian scholar. — Professor Collard. of
the University of Louvain (Brussels, Maison d'Edition Alfred
( 'astaignc. 1903) ; see p. 382 ff. (L'histoire). We can recommend
[ the whole section : criticism from a foreigner's point of view is
always useful.
INTRODUCTORY 3
schools, for the reason that the training there given
is primarily historical, and is based upon a close and
continual study of the past as displayed in Greek
and Roman literature and history. Only upon this
basis is it possible to explain the true meaning of
history and historical instruction for boys between
the ages of nine and eighteen, and only so can we
form a picture of that ideal which every scientific or
intellectual pursuit of any kind must necessarily
keep in view. Not until this ideal has been dis-
covered can we discuss the objects and the means of
history-teaching in the case of those schools which
are primarily occupied with the facts of modern life,
with modern languages, and modern science.
This order has not been adopted from any idea
that the classical are to be regarded as the more dis-
tinguished schools. Classical and modern schools
have been solemnly recognized in Prussia as
" equivalent in value "; this they are and have
been, in their respective styles and places. We do
not, in fact, recognize any distinctions of rank
between the different categories of schools, so that
we need not emphasize the national importance of
the fact that historical teaching in the modern schools
should be properly conducted. Of girls' schools we
say nothing ; the question demands special investi-
gation, for which we do not possess the requisite
knowledge, though at the same time we would
assert our conviction of the extreme importance of
this subject. The modern Latin schools (Real-
yymnasien) we class in general with the classical
1—2
4 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
schools, laying no special stress upon the difference
of their curriculum from that of the true classical
school ; the history teacher will very easily be
able to make those slight modifications demanded by
the difference between the two organizations. More-
over, it is impossible to speak with any certainty at
this moment of these Prussian Realgymnasien, as
changes are constantly made in their curriculum,
and especially in those branches of study which we
are forced to consider — for instance, Latin.
If we attempt to explain the special nature of
secondary classical education as briefly as possible,
one fact is clear — that these institutions owe their
special character to the fact that they are prepara-
tory to the university. Their education is a prepara-
tion for science in the truest and highest sense of the
word, and science implies the discovery of truth,
reality, and certainty within the subject under
examination. Preparation for scientific work is
thus itself science, the search for truth, and the pro-
cess which the Greeks called <f)i\ocro6eiv is common
both to a first and to a sixth form. Hence we shall
be able to define the special character of classical
school training as education for science by means of
science. It is a development of the sense of truth
in the highest meaning of the term, of the desire in
every case to secure clarity, which is truth. To
this idea belongs the further conception that the
student should be accustomed to desire truth for its
own sake, la lumiere pour la lumiere, and not for the
sake of such profit as individuals, however numerous,
INTRODUCTORY 5
may derive from his discoveries. Part of this task
is, therefore, a business extraordinarily difficult for
anybody ; it involves the gradual training of the
pupil to recognize the meaning of knowledge in its
full and pure sense, and to make him understand
that knowledge is not the mere grasp of some facts
worth knowing brought temporarily within the range
of his ideas. Here, at all events, is a tangible and
material difference between the classical and the
modern school. The latter have obviously to
develop this sense of truth as well, and have to
communicate knowledge, but not knowledge in its
highest and strictest sense ; they teach rather than
study, and their special qualities are to be found in
other directions.
What, then, is historical science, and what is
historical instruction ? What does historical in-
struction mean to boys of nine, twelve, or eighteen
years of age ?
By history we understand the discovery and
description of the past, of what has happened in the
world through human agency. The mass of these
accomplished facts is increased every day by
enormous additions, and is, therefore, too great
to grasp or measure. We have, accordingly, to
select the most important of these events per-
formed by human agency, and the question arises,
What point of view determines our idea of im-
portance ? We conceive of importance from the
standpoint of humanitarianism. History, and there-
fore historical teaching starts with the supposition
6 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
that mankind is an ethical whole, and has its
Divine task appointed by God, to realize by slow-
decrees and gradual progress its conception of man-
kind and humanity. This is the true sense attaching
to the term " world history," which is a history of
mankind considered as an ethical whole. If it is
objected that a petitio principii lies beneath this
assertion, we admit the truth of the statement in a
certain sense ; our supposition is a belief, and not
demonstrable fact. If, however, it be argued that
humanity in this sense does not as yet exist,
one point, at least, is certain : so soon as any
individual has conceived the idea " that all men,
past, present, and future, form an ethical whole,"
humanity, in our sense of the term, has come into
existence. Hence our definition of that science
with which the historical teacher will deal is to the
effect that history is the history of humanity re-
garded as an ethical whole, and even if the history
teacher's instruction is of the most elemental kind,
he cannot afford to dispense with this definition.
It must be present to his mind, and he cannot afford
to forget that this idea of the genus humanum was
first elaborated upon Roman soil, and eventually
found its truth, though by no means its realization,
in Christianity. The teacher need not, however, in
accordance with the precepts of former " methods,"
explain these or any definitions of the kind at the
outset of his teaching ; there will be time enough
for that in the sixth form. For only at this point,
after the pupil has reached the goal of his long
INTRODUCTORY 7
career, is this definition no longer a mere collocation
of words to him, but becomes an idea and a truth
which he has to some extent experienced.
When historical instruction is in question the
saying of Goethe naturally recurs to memory, to
the effect that the best part of history is the en-
thusiasm which it arouses. This is very true, and
such enthusiasm is the best — not the sole — result of >
historical teaching, but it can only be aroused in
connexion with the idea or the conception that the
deeds which are to inspire admiration, the exploits I
of great and pure heroism, actiially came to pass
and were performed by men of like passions with j
ourselves. Hence we reach the supreme law which
must govern every mode of historical presentation,
and, therefore, of historical teaching in secondary
schools. This instruction must deal only with what
has actually happened, and it must be added,
should represent it exactly as it happened, as far as
it is possible to achieve this object. There is an
ideal of historical narration based upon an entirely
objective method which relates facts, describes
character, and retraces motives undisturbed by
personal inclinations, by political and religious
partisanship, or by any other influences of the kind
which may affect the historian. Admirable as this
ideal may be, its perfect realization is an impossi-
bility. The historian or narrator remains an indi-
vidual, and his view of history, together with his
mode of presentation, must ever bear a strong
impress of his individuality. At this point, how-
8 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
ever, we are confronted by a further rule, which is
by no means superfluous. Events that certainly
have not happened, and have been proved by serious
and honest investigation not to have happened, are
not to be represented as realities for the purpose of
producing some moral or aesthetic influence or other
effect of the kind. Among our great historians
Chr. Schlosser has expressly refused to accept
the objective theory. Ranke, again, says of him-
self with humble pride that he will only relate
events " as they actually took place," and has
become, paradoxical as it may sound, an extremely
subjective historian by reason of this very effort to
reach an objective standpoint.* We cannot, there-
fore, hold up either one or the other as a model for
history teachers in secondary schools.
The impossibility of writing history " from the
purely objective standpoint " is not merely a
deficienc} 7 or disadvantage : it produces also a
positive result. A contemporary historian is right —
or, at any rate, has the right, whether he be an
historical writer or teacher — to treat history as a
* We have in mind, for instance, the historical introductions
to the narrative passages in the correspondence of Bunsen and
Frederick William IV., edited by Ranke ; these passages are
apparently written from the objective standpoint as though
the author were treating of the seventeenth or eighteenth
centuries, but are in reality highly coloured with the writer's
personality. Of German historians Ludwig Hausser seems to
us to be the best model for the teacher ; not only does he possess
a full sense of historical justice and truth, but he has at the same
time feeling and character.
INTRODUCTORY a
man of his own age — that is, from the standpoint of
the twentieth century. He may also treat it as a
member of his own nation, and many will be inclined
to add, " as a member of his own Church." This
latter claim raises a practical question of con-
siderable difficulty of which we shall have to treat
in its own place, for the special reason that discus-
sions upon the question, whether at head-masters'
conferences or in educational hand-books, usually
evade this point, and speak as if there had never been
any difference between theories of life or any con-
sequent great communities, churches and ecclesi-
astical parties, which were founded upon a basis of
these divergent views, have fought their battles,
and are fighting them to-day. A powerful indi-
viduality is a source of great power, and will make
itself felt, if anywhere, in historical teaching ; but
the teacher, even more than the historical writer,
must remember that he is but an individual. He
must, therefore, be careful to guard against the
delivery of judgments by means of ready-made
catch-words or oracular pronouncements.
One further point must be mentioned before we
can enter upon the practical and detailed side of
our subject. In the course of historical instruction
the teacher is often obliged to consider the so-called
spirit of the age, though this is often nothing more
than a transitory whim of fashion. At the present
time, as every one knows, the teacher is confronted
by " the consciousness of the age " or " the need
of the present," or by "life," often with the loud
10 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
demand for special consideration of all possible
economic and social developments. Nor is this all.
Every moment some new movement imperatively
demands "consideration" or "special treatment."
One would imagine that the spirit of advertisement
or the eulogies of the auctioneer had invaded our
special sphere, remote as it may be from compe-
tition and from the haggling of the market-place.
The truth of the matter is that of making high-
sounding phrases there is no end ; to stimulate the
feeling of patriotism, the sense of responsibility
to the State, the religious sense and character in
general — these are demands which the experienced
teacher can estimate at their proper value, knowing,
as he does, how humble a modicum of truth or
reality is concealed behind these sonorous phrases.
Hence at the very outset of our considerations we
venture to offer the following advice to our younger
colleagues : In the first place, decline to be frightened
by uproar, or to be discouraged by lofty phrases.
In the second place, continue to study history your-
selves : learn it that you may teach it. The methods
of historical study have been already learnt at the
University, and the teacher has shown in his ex-
amination that he has acquired this capacity.
The art of teaching history to children, boys, or
young men, will be learnt by practical teaching,
the more certainly in proportion to the zeal and per-
severance with which the teacher devotes himself
to his special subject. One point, however, is an
indispensable condition in whatever stage of Ms-
INTRODUCTORY 1 1
torical teaching the instructor may find himself :
he must have a general view of the whole path which
his pupils have travelled, or have still to follow.
This general view is assumed by us henceforward,
and only so can we expect that our arguments will
prove of any use to our colleagues. Our German
secondary schools and the higher or middle schools
corresponding to them, admit their pupils, generally
speaking, at the age of nine or ten — in some cases
a little earlier, in others a little later — and those
who pass through the whole curriculum leave
school at the age of eighteen, nineteen, or twenty.
The secondary school and the modern school with
its nine forms (Realschule), has, therefore, to deal
with children, boys, and young men. Hence there
is one fundamental law imperative upon historical
instruction, if upon any branch of study : history
is one thing to the mind of a child and of a boy,
another thing to a youth, and, again, another thing
to the mind of a mature or aged man. This fact
has ever been recognized, and, as far as I can see,
the curricula of all German educational institutions
contemplate a twofold progress across the centuries.
We have definitely rejected those simple or in-
genious proposals which would divide the history
of the world into so many portions as there are
classes in a school, and assign a division to each class
from the fourth form to the sixth. In examining
the curricula of the German secondary and modern
schools, we find a great and general similarity which
materially facilitates our task. We shall, there-
12 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
fore, be justified in basing our arguments upon the
organization usual in Prussia and in those provinces
which have adopted it directly from Prussia. This
method has been chosen not merely because this
organization is best known to the author himself, but
also because the conclusions drawn from these data
are easily applicable to the other schools of our
country.* In Prussia historical instruction has been
discussed at numerous conferences of head masters,
both in general and with reference to important
details. The subject recurred some eleven times
before the year 1876, when the well-known syllabus
of Erler appeared. Discussion has been no less
frequent since that date, and anyone who knows
the extraordinary laboriousness of the methods by
which these conferences work will not doubt their
fundamental thoroughness. It may, further, be
asked whether the result has justified the labour
expended, f One point, however, which seems to
us of high importance has not been sufficiently
emphasized, either at these conferences or in the
* The necessary information may be foimd in Banmei.-t r,
Einrichtung und Verwaltung des hoheren Schuhcesens in den
Rulturliindem von Europa und Amerika, vol. i., 2 of the hand-
book, p. 99 (Bavaria), p. 129 (Saxony), p. 152 ff. (Wurtemberg),
p. 119 (Baden), p. 195 (Hesse), p. 287 (Austria), p. 345 ff. (Hun-
gary) ; the differences are not so profound as materially to
modify our observations upon method and teaching practice.
t Beginners are rather to be dissuaded from a perusal of these
lectures, which treat the subject in a hundred volumes of many
thousand pages, and naturally repeat the same truths over and
over again ; the result is to give the beginner an entirely false
idea of what has been or can be done in this subject.
INTRODUCTORY 13
other literature of the subject. There is a general
impression that our pupils learn history only
during the so-called history hours ; yet nothing is
more obvious than the fact that historical informa-
tion and impressions may be derived by our pupils
from many other sources ; consequently there can
be no fruitful discussion of historical instruction
until we have secured a clear view of these tributary
streams of influence, if we may use the term, and
their effect upon the main stream of historical
teaching. It is not the actual handling of this
subject, but rather its organization that is in ques-
tion. The historical teacher will, therefore, find it
advisable to consider at every stage the relationship
of other branches of instruction to his own subject.
This will lead him to a final preliminary question —
a question, however, which cuts deep into the nature
of the subject — At what class should historical
instruction as such, in continuous and formal style,
begin ? We know (apart from certain discoverers
of the eleventh commandment) at what stage, more
or less, the study of French, of Greek, or of English
should begin. Can we say as much in the case of
history ?
Tn most German States the question is answered
in practice as follows : historical teaching usually
begins in the third school year — that is to say, in the
Third* Form — according to the most usual termin-
ology. The Prussian syllabus of 1892 and of 1901
follows the same method, though for the First and
* For terminology, see preliminary note.
14 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
Third Forms history is put down at one hour a week
(p. 45), subjects which are not historical being
included under the term. We must admit that
definition of the beginning of continuous historical
instruction proper. True historical teaching — using
the word in the sense above explained — cannot
begin until some conception, however immature, has
been secured of the difference between accomplished
fact and fiction, until the stage has been reached
when there is recognition that poetry, legend, and
narrative are not the same as history. This point
is neither automatically nor invariably reached by
promotion from the Second to the Third Forms ;
but the process is generally completed between the
ages of eleven and twelve and in that period of the
school to which these ages belong. When we
assert that " history " — that is, the regular study
of the subject — should not begin before the Third
Form, we do not imply that the formation of an
historical sense is impossible at an earlier period.
We mark off the two lowest Forms — the First and
Second — as a preliminary stage, in the belief that we
shall thus secure a correct point of view for our
future considerations. Hence our remarks apply
primarily to the secondary or Latin school, though
they are also true of any high school.
I
PRELIMINARY STAGE
First and Second Forms.
For this stage of educational progress we refuse to
admit historical instruction proper ; at the same
time the subjects of instruction are of extreme im-
portance, as contributing to the formation of the
historical sense and to the realization of historical
truth. This process of development in the case of
secondary school boys is chiefly influenced from
three main sources : the instruction given in Latin,
German, and religion.
It is remarkable that the teaching of Latin has
never been regarded from this point of view, and
yet the fact is obvious so soon as it has been
enounced. The first condition preliminary to the
formation of an historical sense is the capacity to
regard the past as present. A past national
history, the life, the deeds, the possessions, and
the modes of thought of a vanished people are
transported into the present in the language of
that people ; hence every foreign language —
especially every dead language — produces a cor-
15
16 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
respondingly greater effect upon every human
mind and upon the mind of every child.
These influences produce effects far reaching,
though not immediately obvious in tangible re-
sult ; but appreciation of these effects has been
obscured by the current, but somewhat unin-
telligible phrase that Latin is a mental gymnastic.
The study of the language of a nation which is so
infinitely far from us, and yet so infinitely near to
us as Latin, can obviously do much more, even for
a boy of nine years of age — as, indeed, the current
phrase implies ; and this, though we confine the
deeper influence to the development of a capacity
for gathering isolated examples beneath the unity
of laws and rules. It seems to us essentially im-
portant to the very nature of our secondary educa-
tion that no triviality should be imported into the
study of this language ; all must be scientific, even
for the immature mind of the First-Form boy, and
this for the simple reason that every Latin word
contains a wealth of historical life. This must be
the method even in the earliest stages. Even if
the phrase be nothing more recondite than mensa
rotunda est, it should be shown that the people who
spoke this language two thousand years ago had
round tables, that they had Sessel (stools), sella,
that they had Kuchen (cakes), placenta, etc., that
its sons were addressed as mi fili. To the attentive
observer it is absolutely certain that the greater
interest which the boy shows in Latin as compared
with a modern language, when he is capable of
PRELIMINARY STAGE 17
interest at all, depends upon this fact. For the
adult, again, it is by no means a matter of indiffer-
ence whether he regards a beautiful jug in the
nearest shop, from a famous factory, or a Roman
drinking vessel, with some rude inscription, dug out
of the ground. Two thousand years ago the
drinking vessel was just as trivial as is now the
beautiful jug which stands by the dozen in a shop
window and is of interest to us for its aesthetic
beauty or its technical perfection ; the drinking
vessel has this advantage — that it has a history,
that it speaks to us of the past, and enables us for
a moment to realize this past. In the most in-
sensible it arouses a feeling analogous to scientific
interest — the interest of curiosity, however tran-
sitory ; and a similar effect is produced by a growing
acquaintance with Latin forms, words, and termina-
tions, and thereby with Latin things and ideas in
the case of the boy of nine years old ; he feels him-
self a Latin scholar because he thinks that he is
gaining real and pure knowledge, and not merely
the knowledge of the market-place. To make
French or English — English in the case of the First
Form — the initial foreign language in a secondary
school, is to stifle the scientific sense at its very
outset. At this point we may be confronted by
one of those zealots who would build and concen-
trate everything at once upon the basis of what is
already known. He may ask how the teacher is to
bring out and make operative the historical influence
contained in the elements of Latin. The answer is
2
18 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
that no special treatment is demanded of the
teacher, and that he should merely allow this course
of development quietly to proceed. It is quite open
to him, and arises naturally from the subject, to
tell his boys something from time to time of the
great Roman nation whose language they are learn-
ing, and of whom they will afterwards learn much
more. We must not, however, be misunderstood
to wish the importation of Greek and Roman his-
torical facts into elementary Latin exercises — -a
process sometimes known as concentration, appar-
ently on the principle of Incus a non lucendo ; within
our own field many valuable fruits grow quietly,
without any fussing over questions of method.
The second source which contributes to the for-
mation of an historical sense is different in nature
from the former, but acts as a valuable supplement
to it ; this is the instruction given in the German
language, which can exert a fairly strong influence.
The German reading-books of the two lowest forms,
while providing poems of every kind, fables, fairy
stories, anecdotes of men and animals, descriptions
of Nature and proverbs, also deal, as is well known,
with the facts of history. In our opinion the Prus-
sian syllabuses of 1882, 1892, and 1901 were ill-
advised in announcing " German and historical
narratives, 3+1=4 hours," thus making one of these
hours a special history lesson. Naturally our profes-
sion has been at work here, and has already produced
a whole library of books, with a biography of Hercules
or Odysseus on the first page, and with that of the
PRELIMINARY STAGE 19
Emperor William I. or of the reigning Emperor on
the last.
We must enter a most decided protest against
this literature and its sources, against " history,"
or special hours for its study, in First and Second
Forms. Nor are these lessons as free from reproach
as they appear in the otherwise admirable syllabus
for the Saxon secondary schools of January 28, 1893.
"Whatever historical material can be used here,
whether drawn from Greek, Roman, German,
Saxon, or Prussian history, belongs to the German
lesson and forms part of the German reading-book.
It is quite reasonable that boys of nine or ten, who
are learning Latin, and are introduced to our
German national literature by the simple method of
learning through the reading-book, should read of
Charles the Great, of Henry I., of Frederick Bar-
barossa, of King Frederick William TIL, and the
Emperor William I., of Joseph II., of Maria Theresa,
of Frederick II., of the heroes of Germany, or their
own particular part of Germany, or even of their own
limited district or their town. Even better is it when
some gifted teacher, though he may possess no higher
certificate, seizes the moment when no governor nor
director is to be found for miles around, and tells
his first-form pupils stories of these men and women.
This, however, is not historical teaching, for the
simple reason that pupils in this stage have secured
no conception of chronological order. It would be
useless to tell them that Frederick the Great reigned
from 1740 to 1786 and Charles the Great from a.d.
2—2
20 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
768 to 814. Moreover, they are unable to dis-
tinguish between these prose narratives of historical
events and the corresponding poems which deal with
historical characters. They cannot understand,
thank heaven ! the difference between a legend of
Charles the Great and a history of Charles the Great,
and it would be a complete mistake to transform
their legendary and poetical Roland into the
Hruotland of history. In a German reading-book
for the second form we find " Cadmus (about
1500 B.C.)," a statement typical of the confusion
between legend and history.
The Prussian syllabus of 1892 laid down that its
" Character Sketches from the History of the
Fatherland " should be chosen with reference to the
pupil's home ; that, for instance, in Cologne the
subjects of instruction should be the lives of Albertus
Magnus or St. Martin, or Reinald of Dassel. We can
see no adequate reason for this regulation. It seems
a matter of complete indifference in what order these
narratives from the history of our own country
should be read or explained, whether they should
begin from Cologne and end in Berlin, or follow any
other route. Each one of them has its own value
as providing food for the pupil's mind. The
Prussian syllabus of 1901, which has quietly cor-
rected many mistakes in the two preceding
S3^11abuses, simply says on p. 47 : " The great heroic
figures of the near and remoter past."
As regards the distribution of the material between
the First and Second Forms, a tendency is obvious,
PRELIMINARY STAGE 21
springing from patriotic feelings, to lay great stress
upon a knowledge of German legends at the
earliest possible stage. In some syllabuses I find
that these legends include German mythology,
expressly stated as the ground to be covered by the
First Form : it would be preferable to warn teachers
off this ground. It is not my experience that
Hildebrant and Hadubrant, Titurel and Frimutel,
Parzival and Herzeloyde, Orilus and Schionatu-
lander, or even Repanse and Fierefiz of Anjou,
have especially excited the imagination of our
first-form boys. These legends become important
to boys only by an indirect method ; they must
first have secured some historical interest in their
nation, which can be gained by some intimacy with |
such figures as Theoderich, Etzel, or with chivalry
in general. When this has been done it would be
advisable to reserve information concerning the
medieval legends of Germany for the German
reading-book in the Fourth Form, where these
stories are brought into connexion with their special
and natural environment, and can then produce
their due effect ; this, again, is the proper age for
beginning the study of the Nibelungenlied. On the
other hand, it is, in our opinion, entirely reasonable
and correct to introduce the important personalities
of our national history to these two lowest classes,
by means of anecdotes, experiences in their lives,
and character sketches : at the same time, the only
object here should be to produce an immediate
effect. Order makes not the smallest difference.
22 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
On Monday an instructive story of Bliicher and
Moltke can be read or told, and followed on Tuesday
by a similar story of Charles the Great ; pupils at
this stage have but the most elementary concep-
tions of chronology, and require nothing more
complicated for a time. The only immediate object
is to enrich their imagination with attractive figures
and deeds from the history of their own people, and
this process can be called, so far as we are con-
cerned, the inculcation of patriotism, if any sonorous
catch-word be required.
The Second Form reading-book should also contain
pieces of the same kind, especially pieces of poetry,
and in particular a selection from the finest legends
of classical antiquity, as many as possible from
Greek mythology — Prometheus, Phaethon, Cadmus,
Daedalus, etc., and some few legends from Roman
history. The earlier Prussian syllabuses are here quite
right in saying that the legend proper of classical
antiquity should be assigned to the reading of the
classical languages and to the hours for instruction in
German ; to the latter, therefore, in the Form of which
we are speaking. At the same time it is not wholly
clear what is meant by the term legends "proper " ;
something else is apparently meant than that
which appears in the syllabus of 1901 as an entirely
superfluous historical study out of connexion with
any other ; " narratives from the legends of classical
antiquity from early Greek history (until Solon) and
from Roman history (until the war with Pyrrhus)."
We need not, however, dispute further about words.
PRELIMINARY STAGE 23
We are everywhere in favour of simplicity, and we
therefore prefer four hours of German to three hours
of German and an hour of history, though the
difference is not material. It is unnecessary to
enlarge upon the fact that these legends can be made
beautiful and valuable in the hands, or rather in
the mouth, of a teacher who has himself a youthful
feeling of sympathy for their poetry. After a lapse
of more than sixty years I can myself recall the
deep impression made upon me by the first sentences
in the classical work of Gustav Schwab : " Heaven
and earth were created ; the sea rolled its waves,
and the fishes played therein ; the feathered fowls
sang in the air, and the earth was covered with
moving animals." We are only considering the
subject as it bears upon historical instruction, and
as it can provide preparation, or has itself become
a preparation for this instruction which the Form
will soon have to begin. Take, for instance, the
story of Cadmus on page 87 of the most general,
though perhaps not the best reading-book for the
Second Form — that by Hopf and Paulsiek. After
the piece has been read through in sections and the
teacher has convinced himself that every one has
understood it, he will have it retold with books
closed. He will then ask what the boys have noticed
in the story, and in a manner entirely natural and
unforced, without injury to the poetry of the legend,
and avoiding any elaboration of special points, the
Form will learn the name Europa, will learn of the
Phoenician nation and their discoveries, will hear
24 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
what an oracle is, will learn the names of some
Greek places — Crete, Delphi, and Thebes, will learn
also the names of some Greek gods ; while it is also
permissible to say a word upon our debt to the old
nation of the Phoenicians. Instruction of this kind
comes into connexion with other material — for
instance, with such Latin words as have been learnt,
and this we would add, without any special effort
upon the teacher's part. All that we ask of him,
in this case and in others, is to use as far as he can
the moral forces inherent in every worthy and
tangible object, especially if described in noble
language, and above all things not to destroy its
efficacy by attempts to do too much at one time.
A more powerful and immediate influence, foster-
ing and stimulating the early growth of the historical
sense, is the religious instruction given at tins stage.
It may be said at once that instruction in the
Christian religion, the third of the sources which we
have distinguished above, is from the outset historical
instruction of the first and most elementary kind in
the First and Second Forms of our middle schools.
This fact has been recognized by the present
syllabus of 1901 in its observations upon the
methods of history upon p. 47, but has not been
sufficiently emphasized. Religious instruction is
primarily Bible history taken from the Old Testament
in the First Form, and from the New Testament in
the Second ; teaching upon the Catechism, or any
other instruction given in connexion with the
parish or the church, does not concern us here.
PRELIMINARY STAGE 25
There is no question here of substituting one con-
ception for another, and we need not therefore go
back to Bossuet's Discours sur Vhistoire universelle,
or to the Prceparatio evangelica of Eusebius ; it is
clear from the outset that Bible stories, or the Bible
story as a whole, are properly preliminary to later
historical instruction, and must therefore be treated
by the methods of such instruction, if religion is to
secure her rights and her interests, which are
precisely similar to those of history. Religious
instruction, especially in the Gospels, is primarily
historical instruction, and this not merely in the
more extraneous sense of the word ; for instance,
if Moses and Ins learning and the wisdom of the
Egyptians should be the point, the boy of nine years
old may very well be told who the Egyptians were,
and in what their " wisdom " consisted : may hear
something of their hieroglyphics, their pyramids,
their Lake Mceris, etc. ; or, again, in the New Testa-
ment, the Second-Form boy may of himself acquire
some idea of the great Roman Empire and its
provincial administration. Nor, again, is it merely
in the more serious and fruitful sense of the term that
pupils can of their own accord realise in their own
way certain historical conceptions which afterwards
become of great importance, such as the patriarchal
system of nomadic life and the growth of the tribe
to the nation ; they are confronted with anarchical
conditions, with the irregular but effective power
of men (the Judges) who hold no office, but guide
the destinies of a nation by force of character ; the
26 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
people itself is described and described inimitably,
now enthusiastic, now timorous, blindly credulous
or defiantly unbelieving, asking for guidance, and
again rejecting it with the temper of a child
demanding miracles and signs — the people as it
is, as it was, and as it will be ; the pupils hear of
taxes, of anarchy, of priesthood, of kingship, and
of many other things which cannot be made entirely
clear by definition, for we may challenge any of our
pundits to give us a definition of the term " nation."
These things, however, must become a part of
experience before they can be used, and this, if
anywhere, is possible in biblical history ; this realisa-
tion will also be entirely uncritical, a point of no
mean importance, and to the pupils what they hear
will be unconditional truth and undoubted reality.
But the fact must also be emphasized that this
progress through the " Bible history " is a pre-
liminary stage to all historical instruction in a yet
deeper sense. We have previously stated that
" history " is primarily and from the outset a con-
ception of humanity as an ethical whole ; this con-
ception is presupposed in " Bible history." If we
wish to embark upon speculative inferences we shall
be forced to say that the idea of God is included in
this conception, and that without this idea humanity
cannot be conceived as an ethical whole ; the only
point of importance to us here is the fact that boys
of nine and ten can only conceive of these two —
God and man, divinity and humanity, in connexion.
These complementary conceptions are, however, not
PRELIMINARY STAGE 27
only provided by the religious instruction in Bible
history, but they are also presented in a form
intelligible to the immature mind ; hence they
become firmly rooted, apart from the fact that they
are presented on the basis of an authority of incom-
parable power. We have the idea of a chosen
family believing in the true God and growing to a
tribe, which, while preserving its belief, becomes a
people ; to the people God gives the law of its life
in the promised land, and concludes a covenant
with it. We observe the prosperity, the decline and
fall of this people, the narrowness and limitation
of their conception of a national God, and the
gradual overcoming of this narrowness, until the
history of this people coincides with the history of
the one personality of Jesus, and thus rises and
widens to world history. Here we have in the
most popular and effective form conceivable the
necessary hypothesis upon which all later histori-
cal instruction must be based. Here lie concealed
in embryo the highest tasks and objects of history,
whether they be regarded as forming a philosophy
of history, or included under some other term ; all
later instruction and further study must remain
conscious of its connection with these fundamental
points if the study of history is not to be annihilated
by the bitter sarcasm or despair of the question
which Goethe places in the mouth of Faust :
" Am I perchance in thousand books to read
That everywhere mankind has toiled in vain,
That here and there one has found happiness ?"
28 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
On this point we have no further advice for the
teacher ; the more entirely he treats these Bible
stories as history — that is to say, as accomplished
fact — the better will he provide for the rising
religious sense in his pupils ; the more he treats this
instruction as religion, and the more he devotes to
it his heart and all the higher forces of his soul, the
more will he do for the historical sense of his pupils.
Historical criticism, it is almost superfluous to add,
will be entirely false here, where the pupil can neither
follow it nor make it his own by reflection ; what
is wanted is the undisturbed narration of this history,
laying due emphasis upon its religious content, for
the Bible stories contain deepest truths, whatever
views may be held of their authenticity.
We have made no mention of geography as a
formative influence upon the historical sense at
this stage ; in any case, geography does not hold
that position ; it stands in far closer relationship to
history which is inconceivable without it. The
two studies are indivisible, and are divided only for
imperative practical reasons, in order that they
may afterwards join hands when they have accom-
plished their separate progress. Here in the First
Form the first progress is made through the great
scene upon which the world's history has been
played out, when the use of atlases or maps has
begun. The more simply and intelligently the
master is able to acquaint his pupils with mountains,
rivers, seas, etc., the more certainly will he be
paving the way for the later historical instruction.
PRELIMINARY STAGE 29
There is no reason why he should not tell his pupils
something of Columbus, Cook, Franklin, or Nansen,
etc. We must, however, observe that we are
entirely opposed to the regulation of the Prussian
syllabus which lays down that the First Form should
gain a general acquaintance with the atlas, and then
confines the Second Form to the geography of
Germany, nor are we in any way converted by the
reasons adduced for this method. It is a subject
ot study wholly profitless at this stage. A boy of
ten years brings no interest to the geography of his
country, let alone of his native place, which is
neither of scientific character in itself, nor can
prepare him for scientific study ; the study of
immediate environment only becomes interesting
when the mind has grown maturer, and has been
enriched with historical and with other information.
For secondary schools the fundamental principle of
geographical study is certainly this : that it should
begin with outlying regions and work back to the
home ; but should not proceed from the school-
room to the village and its duck-pond, thence to
the province, thence to Germany, and so on, through
Europe and the other continents. We shall recur
to this mode of study when treating of the Fourth
Form.
In modern schools the conditions at this stage
differ little from those that obtain in the classical
schools. Latin is certainly absent, and for this
there is nothing to compensate ; nor, indeed, is com-
pensation required, since the pupil of the modern
30 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
school does not propose to specialize in history as
does the pupil of the classical school ; his object is
to learn his bearings rather than to gain a know-
ledge of detail. Meanwhile, it must be noticed
that the Prussian syllabus for modern schools
provides an hour more for the study of German
(German and historical narrative) than is given to
the classical school: 4+1 instead of 3+1, and in
the Second Form 3+1 instead of 2+ 1. The reading-
book for the First and Second Forms in modern
schools will differ correspondingly, and certainly in
length, from the reading-book of the classical school ;
it will therefore, and in our opinion it should, include
more historical narrative. We shall afterwards see
that the desire for the positive and the practical
has provided a good supply of historical material
for memorizing, has given the instruction in the
modern school a character somewhat different from
that which obtains in the classical school, and has
possibly provided a certain advantage for this side
of historical instruction, which we ought not to
under-estimate.
II
INTERMEDIATE STAGE
From the Third Form to the Lower Fifth.
Historical instruction proper can now begin ; its
preliminary conditions have been already ex-
pounded ; these consist in the appropriation of that
knowledge and of those conceptions which we have
already explained or indicated, and in the inevitable
influences, difficult to estimate, which accompany
the appropriation of these conceptions. We do
not mean to assert that as the clock strikes eight
upon the morning of the day on which the pupil
begins work in the Third Form, he also begins to be
capable of following historical instruction with profit.
There will be many of the pupils who have long
since had access to historical books, which may be
excellent, such as the Greek and Roman histories of
C L. Roth, or of very doubtful value compiled by
incompetent hands. The latter class of readers, the
cumberers of our ground, must be taken as they
are ; everybody knows that at this age much that
is bad can be read without serious loss, and we
hope that the time is still far distant when home
31
32 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
reading will be subject to the inspection of the all-
compelling scholastic powers, and no boy allowed to
read anything unless his tutor, il suo pedante, as the
Italians say, is looking over his shoulder. The
point at issue is that in the Third Form, usually the
third year in the classical school, that stage is
reached when regular historical instruction can
begin to the extent of two lessons a week, as a rule ;
when there is an orderly progress commenced
through the last thirty centuries of human history,
in contrast to the irregular excursions which pupils
have hitherto made into this subject either in the
school or for their own purposes.
At this point some preliminary questions must be
briefly noticed. Schools with nine classes have
arranged their scheme of historical teaching by long
tradition and by a kind of convention, so that the
course of history is twice repeated — once in child-
hood and again, with the necessary modifications,
in youth. This arrangement, as we have seen,
originates immediately in the nature of those schools
which keep their pupils from childhood until
youth, or even until early manhood. As far as we
can see, the syllabuses of the different states are in
agreement on this point, and we shall therefore
decline to discuss any proposals which ignore this
necessity for duplication, and proceed to demand for
the Sixth Form some mixture of historical lectures,
study of sources, and other supposed methods of
extending and deepening knowledge. The principle
of two readings, or even three, is universally advisable
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 33
in legislation and in parliamentary life, as in the
private reading of good books ; it is a habit retained
throughout life by the sensible man, and in historical
instruction it is especially illuminating and profitable.
In the Prussian schools, and in those which have
adopted their new regulations, the first course of in-
struction proceeds from the Third Form to the Lower
Fifth — that is, to the well-known turning-point at
which some strike off right and left into the forest,
while others pursue their way to the leaving examina-
tion. These latter repeat the course during their
three years in the Upper Fifth, Lower Sixth, and
Upper Sixth.
The second preliminary problem is not so much
a problem as a whimsicality characteristic of our
age and of the position of the secondary teacher ; it
is raised by the latest question : Should history be
begun at its (relative) beginning or its (relative)
end ? The first man to conceive and express the
bold idea that historical instruction should begin
at the present moment or the immediate past and
work backwards to primitive times was d'Alembert,
as I learn from Mahrenholz.* In our days, when we
are reforming everything on earth except ourselves,
this idea has also aroused some transitory attention,
but has disappeared, leaving its mark only in certain
text-books, monstrosities of historical teaching. This
much is known to every one, as is also the fact that
an antiquarian scholar of importance half adopted
* Wandlungen der Geschichtsauffassung und des Geschichtsun-
terricht (Hamburg, 1891, p. 71).
3
34 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
this idea, and seized the opportunity of speaking
with greater or less profundity as an amateur upon
historical teaching ;* he merely succeeded in proving
that anyone at the present, with a little reputation
can write upon matters of which he knows abso-
lutely nothing, and find readers, and even pro-
fessional experts, to take him seriously, to discuss
his ideas, and thus to give a certain importance to
mere amateurism. We must mention the fact at
this point because the secondary teacher is a pioneer,
if ever there was one, and when he is a historical
teacher, is a pioneer in a special sense and fights
under very difficult conditions, and he therefore
on occasion has, according to the old proverb,
many masters— at any rate, many who exercise
mastery over him. And therefore we must not
omit to express our conviction that at every stage of
historical instruction it is of importance that the
teacher in charge should acquire and preserve the
mental independence of the expert, and should
boldly maintain it when necessary against super-
ficial amateurism or against clerical espionage, by
no means unexampled at the present time.
The same idea has occasionally occurred from
the eighteenth century onwards in a less grotesque
form, namely, in the assertion that what is termed
more modern or most modern national history should
be made preliminary both in elementary and advanced
instruction, and should be followed by the history of
antiquity ; while Karl Peter has for years eagerly con-
* Hermann Grimm in the Deutsche Rundschau, 1891, No. 12.
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 35
tended that aneient history must be the special care
of the upper stages of the Sixth Form. It is, how-
ever, unnecessary to refute these opinions, as in every
case proper conceptions of historical teaching have
won their way or have remained unopposed.
We shall begin at the beginning. Historical
instruction in the Third Form is the history of
antiquity — that is, of the Greeks and Romans —
with the addition of such part of the history of the
ancient peoples of the East as may seem necessary.
Some authorities assert that a general view of this
latter subject should precede the study of Greek
history, speak of the growing importance which
Oriental history has acquired through discovery,
and perhaps express even in these views the
momentary unpopularity of Greek and Roman
civilization as a subject for study. The fact, how-
ever, is undoubted, that for ourselves, who are
Germans and Europeans, Greek and Roman history
is of far more importance than Egyptian or
Assyrian ; our arrangements have to be made upon
a basis of two lessons a week extending over one
year, and in this elementary stage simple arrange-
ment is essential. Hence we must be content with
the history of those two nations — a history, moreover,
which stands in no immediate need of antiquarian
research, but is in touch with the modern world by
reason of unbroken tradition. We, as Europeans
and Germans, stand upon the same footing of
freedom as these two nations, that mysterious force
which first became life and reality upon Greek
3—2
.30 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
soil ; we, in short, like the Greeks and Romans,
are Western and not Eastern nations, and therefore
Greek and Roman history is not only more interest-
ing, but also more intelligible, to ourselves and to
our Third-Form pupils. Bible history will have
already acquainted our pupils with the Oriental
nations, and opportunity arises here and there for
providing some necessary information about them —
for instance, before beginning the narrative of the
Persian wars, when East and West, the Persian
monarch and the world of the Greek City States,
came into collision. At this point a teacher is obliged
to say something of the great Eastern monarchs, of
their rise and of the conditions of their existence.
Third Form.
We now reach the main question, which, in accord-
ance with prevailing custom, is usually proposed in
some highly pretentious or euphuistic form — the
problem of the " task of historical instruction "
in the Third Form. We propose to put the question
in more concrete form. During the year which is
devoted to this first progress through ancient
history the master has to deal with a class of twenty,
thirty, or forty boys for two hours a week — that is,
for some eighty hours altogether. What can he do
and what ought he to attain during this period, and
what must be the special objects of his attention,
and how are they conditioned by the nature of his
subject and the character of his pupils ?
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 37
We must first consider the character of this stage
and of the instruction given within it ; I hold that
in the case of these boys between eleven and thirteen
years of age, the teacher's effort should be directed
to the task of securing greater unity and connexion
in their hitherto fragmentary knowledge. In the
Latin lessons this unification is beginning ; connected
pieces are more and more translated, and some con-
nected author, such as Cornelius Nepos, is read and
forms a whole. In religious instruction the Old Testa-
ment is put into their hands, or some reading-book
based thereon which contains complete books of the
Bible, or, at any rate, large selections from them,
and here, again, unity is apparent. In their German
lessons a similar process is going on : the selections
in the reading-book are to be grouped and arranged
in order to connect them together, and the first
step in the land of reality is taken by means of
essay-writing, as the exercise is not improperly
named. Historical instruction must therefore
appear as a connected whole, representing the
life of two important nations from their origin to
their decline, or to their transition into new forms.
Before we consider the nature of this special
historical instruction, with its two hours a week, or
possibly three, in the Prussian modern schools, we
must also ask what formative influences are pro-
vided by the remaining studies in this Form, which
can contribute to the development of the historical
sense ; these we shall now indicate briefly.
The horizon of the pupil at the secondary school
38 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
is now extended by the introduction of a new
language — French.* It is by no means a matter of
indifference that this language has developed from
the Latin which the pupils have already learnt,
though at this stage it is obvious that nothing more
can be done than to mention the general fact, as
explanation and illustration with numerous examples
are hardly possible.
We have already explained that every word of
Latin instruction contains implicit history, and the
knowledge of this language is now extended and
deepened ; the formation of certain elementary
historical ideas concerning state, king, compact,
law, alliance, etc., quietly proceeds with the reading
of an ancient author within the range of a Third
Form, such as Cornelius Nepos.
Religious instruction is also proceeding, and con-
tinues to be historical instruction, the more so as
considerable excerpts from the Old Testament are
now read ; here we have the study of sources in
pure form, while the instruction concentrates
attention upon human life and action from the strict
standpoint of moral and religious criticism ; thus
the pupil gains a higher standard by which he may
judge the deeds and the men whom he will meet in
his history lessons.
* This is the natural line of progress for a school which is to
be introductory to scientific thought — that is, for the secondary
school ; it is also one of the reasons which induce us to oppose
the curriculum of the reformed secondary school. To make
Latin the first foreign language is to us a question of educational
policy, and to the secondary school is a vital question.
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 39
Further, the instruction in German continues to
introduce the German national literature in an
elementary manner. To put the matter more
simply, the boy learns to read good German books
with intelligence, and thus improves and practises
the powers which are necessary to understand
historical connexion.
Finally, what should be obvious from the outset,
but rarely meets with due appreciation, history
and geography become close and natural allies.
The union between these two sciences may
produce admirable results both here and elsewhere,
provided that either' science is treated with due
regard to the other, and at the same time confined
within its proper bounds. History in this elemen-
tary stage, and henceforward until the high stages
are reached, will always provide a geographical
reference to the places of which it treats ; these will
always be shown or found upon the map. Geography,
again, will provide some meaning for the place-
names which occur, by reference to. their historical
importance whenever possible. Clearly, this cannot
be done until the pupils have acquired some know-
ledge of history ; the fact is recognized in most
German schools by the principle which states that
the two geographical lessons should treat of the
geography of Europe, and the two historical lessons
should deal with the two nations, the Greeks and
the Romans, which really gave the word " Europe "
its meaning in the history of civilization.
The first introduction of boys of eleven or twelve
40 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
years old to the national life of one people can only
be secured by dividing history into histories and into
small sections, each of which is presented as a self-
contained whole whenever possible ; the subject of
instruction, is therefore histories taken from Greek
and Roman history in chronological order. We
say histories and not biographies, important as
biographical study may be. Greek history is
terminated with the death of Alexander the Great,
and Roman history with Augustus and the Battle
of Actium ; neither the Diadochi nor the Roman
imperial rule can be made subjects of detailed
treatment for the Third Form. Hence we shall
approve the practice of the Prussian and of the
other German syllabuses, which make Solon in
Greek history and Pyrrhus in Roman history the
starting-points of more detailed study ; in former
times much useless toil was expended upon the
Pelasgic period and the age of the Roman Kings.
As we have observed, there is no objection to making
these same historical periods the material of the
German instruction in the lower Forms ; they must
also form part of the history studied by the Third
Form, and must be presented shortly and summarily,
thus leading up to more detailed narratives of Solon
and Pyrrhus.
Theorists upon historical instruction have often
spoken of the distinction between a purely didactic
side and an ethical side or influence, and have
referred to the training of the sympathies and
imagination, to the hardening of the will, to the
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 41
stimulus of patriotism and of the religious sense
etc. Ethical influence is inherent in the first place
in the material of instruction, in the second, place in
the personality instructing, and in the third place,
as in all other subjects, in the performance of duty.
Here, however, as in every case, the object of primary
importance at school is the act of learning, and the
task of securing that the pupils should appropriate
matter worthy of study, with all the strength of
their will, their intellect, and their memory. Mean-
while the master's task is to present this history
to his pupils in such a manner as to secure two
results :
Firstly, the most important events with their dates
must be engraven upon their memories.
Secondly, they must be able to make some ele-
mentary use of what they have learnt.
This object may be secured by three means.
These are, the text-book, the teacher's commentary
or lecture, and the revision by the pupil. Of these
three we have now to speak, not merely with refer-
ence to this, but witli reference to every stage of
instruction.
A text-book is essential at this point as a basis of
instruction. A mere table of dates and names is
not sufficient, for the reason that the Form does not
yet understand how to use a table, no matter how it
be constructed ; a text-book together with a table,
even if it be nothing more than a so-called canon,
is equally inadvisable, for the reason that the
pupil's desk is already crowded with far too many
42 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
books. The text-book for a Third Form must there-
fore contain tables — that is to say, after every
section a short list must be given of the most impor-
tant facts, with their dates, to be learnt by the pupil ;
and at the end of the book these facts and dates
must be printed together in connected form, so that
the pupil can have the whole result of his year's
work before his eye. We do not propose to recom-
mend particularly any of the countless text-books
in existence.
Assuming that the teacher is able to choose for
himself, or assuming that in his deliberate judgment
the book in use is unpractical — as, for instance,
is the work of Piitz for middle forms ; assuming,
again, that his head master is amenable to technical
arguments upon the subject, and has no objection
to the inconvenience of introducing a new book,
then the teacher has to find a text-book with the
following qualities : it must be decently printed and
bound, qualities winch apply to every school-book,
but apart from this it must divide the subject-
matter into reasonable divisions ; it must not be
too thick nor too thin — in other words, the material
it contains must be such as can be properly ex-
hausted within the given period of eighty lessons ;
thirdly, it must contain nothing unhistorical ; and,
fourthly, it must recount, expound, and teach, but
not narrate its subject-matter — in other words, it
must contain nothing that is not history ; if legend
or poetry are quoted, their nature must be stated,
and uncertain events must be introduced with the
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 43
phrase " It is said." Thus, in the case of the
history of the Roman Kings, it must show that these
stories are told to boys of the twentieth century
with some detail, not because they are more or less
representative accounts of the seven Kings, but
because these stories were firmly believed some two
or three thousand years ago to be the early history
of their famous town by the Roman people — men,
women, and children, by high and low. This,
however, is not the only point ; the narrative style
of many, if not of the majority of text-books, shows
that their authors did not understand what history
is. A case in point is the widely disseminated work
of Welter, a clever book in its entirely false style.
These books either, like Welter, adopt the style
of a novel or else of a rhetorician ; an excellent
criticism uttered, I believe, by Niebuhr upon the
once popular Histoire Romaine of Rollin said that
history was there narrated as if it had not really
happened. Here there will soon be an improvement,
which has, indeed, already begun as far as we can
see ; since we have become a nation in the political
sense of the term, our historical teaching has been
marked by something of that e'£ avroiv to>v irpa^ixdrwv
egis, by the " spirit which statecraft inspires," and
therefore by that political realism which Polybius
demands of the historian ; something, too, of this
strong spirit, of this 7rpay/jiaTCKT]<; lo-Topias Tpoiros,
may or ought to form an element in the historical
teaching of a Third Form.
This, however, is a point difficult to estimate,
44 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
and in any case incommunicable ; another point
that we have mentioned, that the text-book should
not be a narrative, but merely a presentation of
material, is easier to criticize than to explain. In
reviews and elsewhere we constantly meet the
foolish theory which demands that the text-book
should perform what is really the function of the
teacher's commentary or of the reading-book.
Only recently I read a criticism upon a popular
text-book, which stated that though a valuable
performance it could not inspire the pupil with
enthusiasm. Many authors attempt to vivify the
dryness of the text-book with anecdotes, appeals
to feeling, and epitheta omantia, such as " the bold
Pelopidas," " the honourable Phocion," etc. This is
a mistaken point of view. At the same time a text-
book for the third form need not necessarily be
wearisome, any more than are, for example, the
epitomes of Livy. Macaulay, in his essay upon
Goldsmith, rightly praises him for his power of
making the epitomes of his histories attractive :
" in general nothing is less attractive than an
epitome ; but the epitomes of Goldsmith, even
when most concise, are always amusing, and to read
them is considered by intelligent children, not as a
task, but as a pleasure." This should be our ideal ;
the text-book is not to be conversational in the
vulgar sense of the term, but children should be
attracted by it.
The tone and character of the instruction is. how-
ever, determined by the teacher, and follows from
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 45
his grasp of the subject, his manner of presenting
it, and his mode of narrative ; on these points the
text-book should not prejudge his efforts. In dis-
cussions upon the teacher's commentary or lecture
high-flown language has naturally been expended ;
it should be realistic, enthusiastic, convincing,
extempore ; the teacher should call events vividly
before the pupil's eye ; every lesson should be a work
of art, etc. A warning must be uttered against
catchwords everywhere, but most of all in historical
teaching. They either induce the young teacher to
adopt a false rhetorical style or discourage him,
and he feels obliged to admit to himself that his
lecture does not realize these sonorous phrases.
He may calm his mind ; even the heroes of these
proud demands do not make practice correspond
with precept ; what can be attained and ought to be
attained by a conscientious teacher of moderate
gifts is as follows : it is no small achievement, and
it is adequate.
A style of lecture-teaching essentially informal,
as is natural and desirable at this stage of instruc-
tion, can be attained after some period of learning
and practice. Our object at this moment is not
to deal with a large mass of information in one
lesson, but merely to expound such material as
the text-book provides, and provides in sections of
moderate length ; moreover, the teacher is perfectly
well able, without exciting the surprise of his pupils,
to glance at the text-book from time to time, if
the thread of his argument escape him, as may
46 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
very well happen. But the first condition for a
good lesson, and above all for a good history lesson.
is proper preparation, and preparation must be of
two kinds : it must be devoted to the subject as a
whole, and to the lesson in particular. For a Third-
Form history lesson the first object is attained if
the teacher reads or re-reads a good Greek or Roman
history, though this is a practice which must be
continued. He should read one history and not
six, that he may become acquainted with the whole
of the area which he must cover with his pupils, and
gain a living knowledge of it. If he has time, and
time he may gain by leaving for once unread long-
winded reports, replies, theses, essays, etc., he had
better read for his general preparation one Greek
and one Roman original source — for instance, the
whole of Herodotus and the whole of Livy — in order
that he may secure the benefits of which the latter
speaks : ceterum et mihi vetustas res (de)scribenti
nescio quo facto antiquus fit animus. A first
analysis which he will make for his own instruction
should be kept, as it may prove of value at a later
time, and will be improved in the course of teaching ;
for upon the whole it may be said that the mind is
never more inclined to productive and creative
energy than when engaged in teaching. As regards
preparation for a particular lesson, the teacher must
be entirely clear upon the course which his lesson
is to take, and must at the same time make himself
entirely master of that moderate amount of material
which can be used for one lesson. When thus
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 47
equipped he should, after hearing the revision ot
which we will speak presently, have a complete
section read aloud by one or two boys. Let us
suppose it is the section dealing with King Pyrrhus
and the war with Tarentum. He will then retell
the story in greater detail with all the clarity of
his intelligence and practical knowledge, with all
the vividness that his imagination and descriptive
talent will permit, and with all the warmth that his
sympathy and his confidence will allow. Above
all things, he should strive to secure simple and clear
language, and remember the good rule which appears
as early as the Methodus tradendi in scholis historiam
for the Germanic province of the Jesuit Order
about 1717 ; larde fiat narratio, lit sequi possint
discipiili* The more practised teacher can natu-
rally reverse the process by first telling the story,
and then making the Form read the section ; this,
indeed, is the better method, but considerable
practice is required to present historical material
from the right point of view to boys at this stage,
and I therefore regard the former method as more
advisable for those beginners for whom these pages
are specially intended. The course of events, when
necessary and possible, is explained by reference to
the map, and the teacher must convince himself
that they have been understood by making the
Form repeat his narrative when the subject invites
this method (unusual, see below) ; for the most part
he will secure this end by short questions and by
* Monumenta Germanice pcedagogica , XVI., p. 107.
48 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
a simple catechism : Repeat the main battles of
the Tarentine War ; the names of the most impor-
tant leaders and statesmen ; the districts where the
war was carried on, etc. At this point a few ques-
tions may be introduced, though not too frequently,
appealing to the intellect : In what way did the
Roman nation defeat the King who was originally
victorious ? Why did Hannibal consider it important
to reach the district of the Po with his army ?
Should a district, such as Bceotia or Thessaly
appear in Roman history, he will ask what the boys
know of these districts in Greek history, and so
forth.
In this connexion we must refer to the ethical
effect of teaching, and the extent to which this can
be produced by the teacher's lecture. Recipes
have already been published for stimulating
patriotism by emphasizing the heroism of the three
hundred Spartans at Thermopylae or of the
Athenians at Salamis, and possibly in the course of
time some psycho-physiological method will be
found of making historical dates a stimulus to
patriotism ; in the meanwhile we would utter an
emphatic Avarning against this mode of treatment.
It is impossible to conceive of any worse mistake
when explaining a lesson than to spend time in
preaching patriotism or any other noble quality.*
* Excellent are the words on this point of the above-men -
tioned method for the Jesuit schools : " Doctrinas morales e re
natas immisceat professor, non multas tamen. . . . Reflexiones
hse ad moralia brevissimse sint, ne concio prodeat loco historiae."
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 49
The beauty of great and lofty historical events, such
as the attitude of the Roman senate after the Battle
of Cannae, consists in the fact that they give their
own lesson. Herodotus says nothing further on
Ephialtes, except that ' He was the man whom I
write down as guilty ' (aWa tovtov oXtlov ypdcpco)
and nothing more of Leonidas than dvrjp apiaro?
ryevo/xevos. Similarly Tschudi, in his Chronicon
Helveticum, says of Arnold von Winckelried :
' There was a man of Unterwalden by name Arnold
von Winckelried, an honourable knight ; he sprang
forth from the ranks, and embraced with his arms
a number of the hostile spears ; thus he sacrificed his
life.' This is the ideal narrative style, especially
in historical narrative for Third-Form boys. No
special stress, in the old style, should be laid upon
the astonishing heroism of men like Regulus or
the prisoners of Pyrrhus, who were released upon
parole, kept their word, and returned to captivity.
At the same time we should wish to mention one
further rule upon this subject. The teacher should
relate history as a man — not as a schoolmaster — as
the patriot which it is to be hoped he is, and as
consequently able to appreciate the deep patriotism
of such a man as Aristides or Demosthenes ; he need
not suppress his enthusiasm if it breaks from him
involuntarily upon the relation of some bold deed,
but he should not attempt to lash himself to
enthusiasm, for this is precisely the way not to find
it. Another point may be remembered. It is a
matter of experience that pupils at this age prefer
4
50 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
history lessons to any other, perhaps together with
the German lesson. This frame of mind which
meets the teacher half-way is a capital on which
admirable interest can be secured, and its value
need not be enhanced by any artificial methods.
This special characteristic of the history lesson, its
popularity with the boys, a popularity which is
unshaken and should remain so in the case of the
Third Form, necessitates a further fact ; that home-
work should be given very sparingly. There should
be a little, a very little, but something should
always and regularly be given, otherwise the boy
will incline to despise the subject. The Form
should simply be told to read over in their text-
book, for the next time, the ground that has been
covered in any one day. At this stage it will be
understood that no other preparation is possible
for the history lesson except this repetition of what
has been already done.
These facts lead us to the third factor in historical
instruction — revision. Home-lessons obviously con-
sist of revision directly from the text-book ; in the
Third Form there is no taking of notes, and on this
subject we need not dwell, though dictation has
formerly played a part even at this stage. Revision
itself is of two kinds. First there is the repetition
of what has been gone through in lesson A, which
occupies the first fifteen or twenty minutes of lesson
B ; this is performed by one or two boys who are
called upon to repeat the lesson successively, or by
the usual mode of question and answer addressed
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 51
to any number of boys ; either method can be
adopted acording to the nature of the lesson under
treatment. The first Persian War, for instance,
can be repeated in sections of moderate length,
this being a task within the compass of any average
Third-Form boy. Such repetition, however, of the
circumstances which led to the legislation of
Tiberius Gracchus would scarcely be within the
compass of an Upper-Fifth pupil ; hence, in this case,
the master must ask questions upon the most
important points, and secure a repetition by means
of his questions in the following way : "We have
spoken of a journey taken by Tiberius about the
year 134 B.C. through certain districts of Italy ; what
special facts did he notice ? what conclusions did
he draw from them ? what earlier law dealt with the
distribution of land to plebeians who had none ?
by whom were the legislative proposals of Tiberius
opposed, and for what reason V etc. The second
mode of revision consists in the repetition of a
longer period than has been already gone through
by the methods explained ; instances will be from
500 to 431 b.c. in Greek history, and from 264 to
133 b.c. in Roman history. This repetition takes
place at the conclusion of each period in the text-
book, so that a pupil who works intelligently and
looks before him can prepare for this coming
revision of the whole period. It is probable,
discounting the differences between lessons and
teachers, that a considerable number make use of
this method.
4—2
52 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
At this point we must consider the second im-
portant object of historical teaching — the power of
making some elementary use of the matter that has
been learnt. By this I mean the capacity to repro-
duce acquired information in another connexion than
that in which it was originally explained; for instance,
a master (in the higher stages), when the pupil has
finished the historical course, may ask questions upon
the history of Sicily or Spain, or upon any other
general fact of importance (of this method we shall
speak later), and arrange his questions from this
point of view. This is a problem which naturally
occurs at every successive stage of instruction. In
Prussia and elsewhere a very simple means has been
found of discovering bow far this problem has been
solved, and the object of the pupils attained, the
means being the oral history examination in the
school-leaving certificate. This method is now a
thing of the past ; here, as everywhere, reform
has thrown the handle after the helve, and the
practice has been abolished together with its
misuse. The problem, however, remains, and this
method must be begun even in the Third Form.
Use and application of the material learnt must
then be made, because such method forms an
essential element in every reasonable scheme of
historical teaching. As the method is possible it
should certainly be practised ; in the First and
Second Forms it is impossible, and for that reason
historical teaching in the proper sense of the term
is equally an impossibility in those forms. Revision
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 53
of this kind, however, is a severe test of the teacher's
capacity. The task, as such, is sufficiently simple.
For instance, the period of Roman history between
264 and 146 B.C. may be repeated as a biography of
Hannibal or of the elder Scipio. These biographies
can be built up by question and answer from the
material which the Third-Form boy has garnered
through the previous ten or twelve lessons extending
over a month or six weeks ; by learning some
twenty-six dates he has secured a chronological
grasp of this period immediately before the revision
of it, which revision, be it observed, should not,
and does not, require much more than an hour's
time even by the method proposed. It is obviously
at this point that the biographical thread of con-
nexion can be made highly useful ; it is, moreover,
the natural method to extract the biographies of
important men from the national history, as against
the reverse method which subordinates a national
history to the biographies of its leading men ; no
one is acquainted with a town if he has merely
observed the statues of its greatest citizens. There
are, however, many other obvious lines of procedure ;
for instance, towards the close of the course a con-
nected history may be demanded of some special
district of Upper Italy, Sicily, Spain, Bceotia, or
Messenia. It may also be added that from this point
of view the historical instruction provides a fertile
source of material for elementary German com-
position, which begins at this stage, as does all
connected work. An average Third-Form boy is well
54 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
able to cope with such a task as the production of a
short history of the district of Messenia, for which
purpose he may be given numbered references to
his text-book ; a similar subject is the town of
Thebes, founded by Cadmus, according to legend,
and destroyed by Alexander the Great. It must,
however, be observed that we are not here proposing
one of the so-called minor elaborations of the
Prussian syllabus, the arrangement of which has
again pushed a good idea into extravagance ; nor,
again, are we proposing any additional object for the
pursuit of the history teacher ; we suggest nothing
more than a subject for an essay. It is not our
object to add to historical teaching, as such, any
additional tasks or extensions, but quietly to proceed
along the straightforward path which we have
indicated.
The path, however, must be traversed to its end.
This is a duty as important as it is difficult to fulfil,
because it is to some extent dependent upon adventi-
tious circumstances ; nevertheless, the appointed
period must be fully covered and thoroughly ex-
hausted. University professors, as every one knows,
are, as a whole, but little troubled by this require-
ment ; any general criticism on this account will be
unjustifiable in their case, and if the instruction they
find time to give bears good fruit the shortness of the
period covered does not matter ; secondary school-
masters, however, are under different laws, and
cannot allow themselves such licence in this matter.
The history teacher must, therefore, from time to
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 55
time, consider the speed of his progress throughout
the given course and must not delay, that he may
not have to hurry towards the conclusion. While
omitting nothing in the text-book, there is much that
he can treat summarily, so that he can eventually
reach the actual conclusion of the text-book, and
leave upon the pupil's mind the impression of a task
accomplished, a result by no means indifferent to any
who regard instruction as a truly educative process.
At every stage, and not merely when teaching a
Third Form, this duty must be seriously considered,
if only for the simple reason that it is difficult to
perform. The inexperienced teacher is easily left
behind from ignorance of the technical methods
advisable in this case ; the more experienced teacher
can make the same mistake for another reason ; the
richer his knowledge of the subject or of special
departments of it, the more will he have to tell his
pupils of interest, and it is hard to renounce these
opportunities. In many discussions upon historical
teaching one would think that theorists had forgotten
that the day on our planet contains but twenty-four
hours, and the year but three hundred and sixty-
five days — a large number of which, moreover, are
Sundays and holidays.
The difference between the classical and the modern
school is of comparatively minor importance for
this elementary and early instruction in ancient
history. The pupils of the modern school will
appreciate the world of ancient history less readily
than the Third-Form boy in the classical school,
56 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
who has already breathed some of its atmosphere.
Nor is it necessary or possible that the sympathy of
the modern school should be stronger than it is.
Its pupils will not continue the study of history for
itself, but only require to gain that general know-
ledge of the subject which is advisable and necessary
for anyone who wishes to converse with educated
men, both for the merchant and for all members of
the specially industrial classes. Ancient history
need not be presented to these pupils in any different
form from that in which the classical pupils have
learnt it. The great struggles of the Oriental empire
and the Greek City States in the Persian wars, the
heroic struggle of the great nation with the great
man in the wars with Hannibal, are no less interest-
ing or significant to the Fourth-Form boy in the
modern school than in the classical school ; it was
in every respect wise for the new Prussian syllabus
to make the historical range for these different
schools practically coincident. A historian, how-
ever, of university training, whose business it is to
give this instruction in a modern school, will find a
special attraction in introducing the events, the
conditions, and the personalities of Greek and Roman
history to boys who will never be impressed by that
immediate contact with these peoples which alone
can be gained by a knowledge of their languages.
Hence this instruction requires no special art, but
merely careful observation of the ideas which the
teacher proposes to present to his pupils.
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 57
Fourth Form.
The periods assigned to this stage of instruction
are by no means identical throughout Germany ;
for instance, the Saxon syllabus of 1893 assigns to
the Lower Fourth the outlines of German history from
1 648 to 1 87 1 , and to the Upper Fourth the first portion
of ancient history and Greek history to the death of
Alexander the Great. The Prussian syllabus of 1901
prescribes German history to 1740 for a course of
two years, and this we propose to make the basis of
our present discussion ; it is not only the most recent
decision, but has been made after deep consideration
of every problem involved. As our task is primarily
practical, we do not propose to utter any criticism
of the syllabuses in force in the different German
states or elsewhere ; in any case, the essential part
of our observations will apply, correctly or in-
correctly, to the several Forms of the school, what-
ever the period of history assigned for study.
First and foremost the teacher must gain a clear
idea of the general character of the Form with which
he has to deal. Fourth Forms are composed of
boys between twelve and fifteen years, and occasion-
ally include backward members of some sixteen or
seventeen years of age ; this is the precocious,
critical, and argumentative age at which, to mention
but one symptom, argument with the teacher often
occurs though it is hardly to be taken seriously.
This much is certain, that at this age strong authority
and discipline is imperatively necessary as a counter-
58 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
poise. The Form must respect, not only the master
or the head master, of the school, but more than
these — the moral force which support and dominate
these personalities, as they do the pupils. Among
these influences the sense of nationalism or
patriotism, with possibly some small admixture of
what is now known as Chauvinism, is a most effective
influence, and is in many respects more strongly
operative at this age than the influence of religious
instruction and religious practices. Teaching, as a
whole, must be strongly stimulative, and from every
point of view must be directed to the task of crushing
or counter-balancing the distraction, dilettanteism,
and obstinacy which are characteristic of this
age.
Here — and unfortunately this is not the only
place — the Prussian syllabus of 1892 seems wholly
retrograde, and the last syllabus of 1901 has not
entirely repaired these defects. The old Prussian
syllabus of 1856, as far as it concerned the Fourth
Forms in secondary schools and in deciding the two
years' course for these Forms, was admirable, and I
have no hesitation in declaring it the best and most
effective piece of educational organization with
which I have met during the sixty years of my
experience as teacher or learner. In this syllabus
everything was admirably co-ordinated ; there was
a strict basis of Latin, ten lessons with the reading
of Csesar, to which the schoolboy of those days
came so well prepared that he could translate at
sight with but little help ; there was also an adequate
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 59
amount of Greek with the reading of the Anabasis.
Round this centre the outworks of German history
and German geography were arranged in a manner
complementary and mutually supporting. The
pupil gained increased knowledge of the history of
his own people ; the origin of it was discovered at
the source when he met the vigorous figure of
Ariovistus in the first book of the Bellum Gallicum ;
the German literature taught him so much of our great
poets and authors as to enable him to see something
of the great mountain-tops by advancing to their feet.
The New Testament provided religious authority,
easily brought into connexion with a sense of
patriotism, and in any case favourable to a deeper
ethical conception of history. This syllabus formed
a central portion of the path through the secondary
school, where abundant and simple nourishment,
but nourishment by no means monotonous, is most
necessary. Best of all, these studies might be made
fruitful without any sublimated educational theory ;
nothing more was required than such moderate
insight and devotion to duty as is rarely lacking in
our profession.
This organization, in our opinion, produced
excellent results in the generations of 1864, 1866,
] 870, and later ; it was based upon the principle that
one subject should be learnt thoroughly, and
acquaintance be made with many ; we refer to the
serious and thorough linguistic training gained by
the study of the two languages, Latin and Greek,
which are especially suited for the acquisition of
(10 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
such training. The basis of this organization has,
however, been so reduced that we can no longer
guarantee its success. The regulation which begins
Greek at a later age is not entirely objectionable ;
but to Latin the time given has been reduced to
seven hours instead of the former ten, from the very
outset in the First Form, and also in the Third and
Fourth. We have attempted to discover some reason-
able argument for this change without any success
whatever. In the syllabus of 1001 an hour has been
added in either case, the number now standing at
eight instead of seven ; hence the existing syllabus
in the present secondary schools is considerably
worse than it was before ; the previous ideals have
been retained, but the means of reaching them have
been unduly reduced. The results will be inevitable,
and in our special subject — the teaching of history
in this Form — a further result has become apparent
on one side : the Lower Fifth has been given a period of
German history instead of a period of ancient history.
Hence in Prussian middle schools three instead of
two hours are now devoted to German history, upon
which question we shall speak further when we
discuss the Lower Fifth.
We have now to ask what historical influence is
exerted upon the Fourth Form by the other subjects
there studied ; natural science and mathematics
may be left out of account.
Turning first to the classical school, a highly
important extension of the historical horizon takes
place at this point for the reason that the Lower
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 61
Fourth begins the study of Greek, which exerts an
influence even from the learning of the alphabet.
This task is in itself a revelation to any untutored
mind. The connexion of our script with the Greek
is plain even to a boy of twelve years old, and if he
is told whence the Greeks gained their alphabet,
his attention is directed to the great civilized
connexion which unites humanity, and a further
impulse is given to that recognition of humanity
as a whole which is gradually to become a living
truth for the pupil. The first Greek words which he
learns will forthwith display an identity with
German and Latin, which must lead to the idea of a
near or immediate relationship between the three
nations ; in short, a new source of historical informa-
tion is opened to him even before he begins the reading
of connected texts. In the Upper Fourth this reading
is confined to an historical source of first-rate value —
the Anabasis of Xenophon. It is obvious that this
latter advantage — to our thinking, very considerable
— will be diminished by the reduction of the lessons
from seven to six in the existing Prussian syllabus.
We are delighted to observe that this dangerous
precedent has not been followed by the Saxon
syllabus of 1893, which seems to us to point in this
and other cases to the more correct method, and
to be less disturbed by educational heterodoxy. In
this syllabus the seven hours for the Fourth and
Fifth Forms are retained.
In their first year the Lower-Fourth pupils have
advanced so far in Latin that they can read Ca?sar's
62 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
Bettum Gallicum : in Prussia, however, the master
is obliged to give somewhat more help than would
be, under other circumstances, advisable. It would
be superfluous to speak at greater length of the
importance of this author to historical teaching,
and to the historical education of the pupils, not-
withstanding the fact that many people and many
teachers seem to confine the word history to that
side of historical instruction which concerns the
memory alone. History to them implies the tables
or summaries, or the amount of so-called positive
knowledge contained in histories of the world in
twelve, eighteen, or twenty volumes ; they consider
that this is the kind of positive knowledge that we
wish to draw from the reading of Latin and Greek
texts. Our view, however, is very different. To
understand the past in any degree implies the
capacity of realizing it as a present ; we insist that
any one incapable of this effort is equally incapable
of relating the history of any one period or nation ;
hence, as regards our share in secondary education,
we may also say that pupils learn real history only
so far as they develop this capacity of using their
imaginative powers and realizing the past as present.
We have already seen that in the elementary stages
this process of realization is confined to simple
language and short sentences ; as the knowledge of
the foreign language improves, the power of realiza-
tion increases, and can or should be powerfully
operative during the reading of Caesar's Bella in
Gallicum, provided that the master has a moderate
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 63
knowledge of his business. Caesar's book is an his-
torical source of first-rate importance, by which we
mean that the writer relates his own experiences,
reproduces the past as present in action ; this task,
again, is performed by a man of high intellect,
who was himself the author and overseer of the
events which he narrates. It is thus obvious that
when the pupil prepares, translates, or revises this
book, when he reads this author thoughtfully, he
experiences the contents of the book so far as it is
possible in any way to experience the past. Only
thus will historical events become living realities to
the pupil. Take, for instance, chapters xxxi. to
liv. of the first book, the history of the first or
second great conflict between the Roman and the
Teutonic world, between Caesar and Ariovistus ;
however wooden the teaching or however stupid
the pupil, some realization of the important historical
position must be secured ; the pupil cannot fail to
realize the special position of Gaul, a civilization
comparatively advanced and menaced by two more
powerful but less civilized nationalities, a country,
moreover, by no means united ; then comes the
personality of an interesting barbarian chief : the
scene (Book I., chapter xxxii.) played before
Ca?sar by those genuine Gauls and genuine French-
men, the Sequani ; the origin of the first conflict
between the Roman and Teutonic nationalities,
two powers incarnated in two pre-eminent figures —
those of Caesar and Ariovistus — holds the imagina-
tion of a boy of fourteen years ; then follow the
64 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
negotiations between these leaders, the panic of an
excellent army caused by the vague fears which
even the boldest spirits feel before an unknown foe
of infinite ferocity ; the moral influence of one
great man over an army is seen, and something is
learnt of the army until we reach the intensely
interesting meeting of the two leaders, at which
point a competent teacher will not hesitate to show
how the chapter is one of the most precious passages
in Roman literature for German readers, because it
is the first long and serious speech of a famous
Teuton, who is, so to speak, a German, bone of our
bone, and flesh of our flesh, while that speech is
here reported with full reliability. Pages might be
filled 'with explanations of the historical principles
contained within these chapters, and available even
for the intellect of boyhood. The pupil reads the
lives of men and nations, and while reading is not
merely a listener, but can appropriate views, con-
ceptions, and real knowledge by slowly grasping
these views as represented in words, and piercing
through the veil of words to the reality beneath.
These influences cannot be measured or precisely
determined, but they are immediate, and certainly
belong to the sphere of historical instruction ; hence
the young teacher must understand that here he
has an opportunity with little trouble, and without
calling into play the famous six interests, to produce
an extraordinary result by simple attention to
business. These results are not likely to be recog-
nized by the newspaper, by the public, or even by
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 65
educational authorities, let alone the daily press or the
party continually tinkering with reform ; but, none
the less, they stand written in the Book of Life.
Of the rest of the further Latin instruction given
at this stage, and in particular of translation from
German into Latin, we shall say nothing, and shall
touch the matter with great brevity even when we
deal with the Sixth Form. The leaders of modern
educational tendencies in Germany, whose words
seem almost to bear an official character, are appar-
ently unable to appreciate the intimate connexion
between the reading of Latin texts and the attempt
to think in the language of these texts when such
thinking is not mere retranslation or paraphrase. It
does not seem to be understood that the full benefit
of Latin study, and therefore the historical benefit,
can only be secured when both modes of transla-
tion are practised so that the one supplements and
completes the other.
The greater part of what we have said is equally
true of Greek ; the reading of the first book of
Xenophon's Anabasis begins, at any rate, during
the second half-year in the Upper Fourth. This book
provides a highly effective and educational counter-
part and counterpoise to the reading of Caesar ; the
resulting advantages are naturally doubled if the
study of the Greek text is treated, like that of the
Latin, with full reference to the matter as well as
to the language. Here it must be observed that the
simultaneous study of the two classical languages,
when the intellect and the power of concentration
5
66 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
have so developed as to undertake this task, produces
an advantage which cannot be expressed by a simple
sum in addition. Moreover, it is high time to
appreciate the fact that Greek and Roman authors
are now read in our schools from a historical point
of view, and that they therefore mean a great deal
more to us than they did to our predecessors of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The method
of treatment which regards the Bellum Gallicum or
the Anabasis as original sources, and as documents
interesting for their actuality, is by no means as
yet universally employed ; classical scholars pure
and simple still show some objection to the method,
in fear, I suppose, that grammatical accuracy may
suffer from it. Provided that modern barbarism
does not succeed in totally abolishing Greek, it will
be recognized by degrees that grammatical accuracy
is in no way benefited merely because it is allowed
to overshadow historical content ; the two sides
react upon and illuminate one another, and it costs
no more time to read these texts as monuments of
national history than was formerly expended in
reading them for their grammar and their style.
It may also be pointed out that such treatment of
texts is best calculated to emphasize a very essential
part of historical life — namely, the coexistence and
interaction of great and small, of lofty and trivial
events. Much can be done, for instance, for a
Fourth-Form boy's historical knowledge and his-
torical outlook in such a case as the first book of
the Anabasis, chapter vii., section 3. Cyrus, the
INTERMEDIATE STAGE G7
far-sighted barbarian prince and the chief figure of
the narrative, is there represented as reminding the
Strategi and Lochagi of his mercenary regiment,
of their Greek Eleutheria ; this was a privilege, as he
clearly explains, from which he was excluded, and
which none the less made these Greek mercenaries
superior in power to ten times their number of bar-
barians. Here we have that same influence of
liberty which is hereafter to fortify also the present
Fourth-Form boy ; at the same time the value of
this reading is highly stimulating to the historical
knowledge of even very simple and elementary
facts, such as the daily life of an army on march.
Here the master is able in every case to arouse a
technical interest in a very simple way which
directly furthers linguistic interest ; he may, for
instance, ask the form to collect the military and
strategical terms with which they meet as they
read the first book of the Anabasis, and the same
process is naturally possible in the reading of Caesar.
No modern language can supply any similar means
of stimulating the historical sense, and certainly not
French, which is not studied for this purpose. In
the modern schools the more numerous hours
devoted to French and its connexion with English
make it possible to do something for the extension
of the historical outlook upon the lines by which
Latin and Greek influence the pupils of the classical
schools ; the effect, however, is not great, nor does
the modern school aim directly at this object.
Text-books in this language are concerned, as they
5—2
68 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
should be, with modern or, at most, with medieval
life. At this stage we shall expect to find but
scanty classical references in the French reading-
book. Greek and Roman history in a French dress,
even when handled not merely by Rollin or Chateau-
briand, but also by Michelet and Guizot, appear
somewhat alien to the pupil of the classical school,
and in many cases produce a kind of unjustifiable
repugnance to French. The difference between the
French and German spirit is strongly present to the
pupil's consciousness at this stage, and the French
master is here confronted by the additional obstacle
of a certain Chauvinism, when he emphasizes the
fine points of the French language and the French
spirit. Further progress in French certainly fosters
the historical sense, though not immediately, by
extending the point of outlook, by inducing com-
parison with a foreign nationalism, and by opposing
modernity to antiquity. The educational value of
French is not to be under-estimated when properly
taught, but the study is certainly intended for some-
thing better than to enable the pupils to converse
about a journey from Berlin to Potsdam, or from
Mayence to Cologne, or upon the bill of fare in a
restaurant.
Of special importance in the Upper and Lower
Fourth, for the stimulus of the historical sense, is the
study of German ; we refer particularly to the
German reading-book, which eventually extends to
the reading of dramatic pieces, the dramas of
Uhland, the pieces of Herzog Ernst, Korner's
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 69
Zriny, Kleist's Prinz von Homburg, and also
Goethe's Gbtz von BerlicJiingen, the hard realism of
which seems almost to have been intended for the
benefit of this stage (the Upper Fourth), and Schiller's
Tell, though this latter seems hardly suitable as yet.
We cannot agree with the usual phrase that German
ought to form the central point of the whole educa-
tional course ; we might as well say that the air
we breathe forms the central point of our life.
German is therefore much more than the central
point ; at present, however, we are speaking of
systematic lessons, and especially of the reading
lessons. The reading-book leads the boy deep into
the life of our nation, and this seems to be the
proper stage to begin the old Scandinavian or
medieval German legendary poetry ; anything, in
fact, may be used which is a special product of
the imagination, even " Reinecke Fuchs " (Reynard
the Fox) or " Eulenspiegel " (Owl Glass). By reading
the modern extracts the pupil learns something
of the lives of their authors, and gains a nearer
acquaintance with the great literary revival subse-
quent to 1748 and with its leading figures, Goethe
and Schiller. The original Prussian syllabus for
these Forms, that antecedent to 1882, 1892, and 1901
was a masterpiece, and it has remained compara-
tively unimpaired in this respect ; we mean that
German history receives adequate attention in this
Form, and should react upon the study of the German
language and literature, an interaction which is not
only advisable upon educational grounds, but is
70 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
almost automatically and naturally provided, though
cases do arise when the German and the history
lessons are in the hands of different masters. The
German lesson, more than any other, depends upon
the master's individuality, his inclinations, his
studies, and the range of his reading. It is obvious
that his teaching may be good or bad by methods
wholly different in either case ; we would not be mis-
understood to assert that a teacher who is inclined to
praise the historical point of view should be forced
to make a direct connexion between German
literature and German history ; for instance, if he
reads Charles the Great in a history lesson, he need
not necessarily proceed to read with his Form every
legend and poem in the reading-book which may
refer to this hero. We entirely reject the view that
these so-called historical poems should be imme-
diately and systematically incorporated in the history
lessons ; this is anything but the co-ordination of
teaching, and tends rather to distract than to
concentrate the attention ; nor is it in any way
necessary. We consider that the German literature
lessons do much to further the historical sense by
introducing the pupils to fresh views of human life
conceived from different points of view r ; these
lessons introduce the pupils to German legends, to
the best German prose, to the noblest of German
poetry, and thus provide him with some idea of our
national importance in the development of humanity.
The connecting-links are made automatically by
instruction in German history, and a sense of
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 71
nationalism is thereby stimulated. Neither in
literary nor in history lessons do we require any
party -pleading ; the master should be himself so
patriotic, and inspired by so true a love of his country,
as to be unconscious of the fact ; in that case the
pupils will be most likely to catch something of his
spirit, and a stage will possibly be reached when it
is not necessary to accompany every word with the
adjective "national."
Religious instruction exerts an influence upon the
fundamental historical conceptions very analogous
to that of the literature lessons. The connexion
between divinity and history as subjects of teaching
has been already indicated in discussing the earlier
stages ; for the Upper and Lower Fourth we should
prefer to confine ourselves to the reading of the
New Testament, in opposition to the Prussian
syllabuses of 1892, and 1901 and to some others which
do not seem to consider sufficiently the psychological
conditions which govern the work of the different
Forms. At this stage we should take as our texts
the New Testament and some of the Psalms,
or use a suitable series of extracts from the Bible,
like the so-called school Bible of Bremen. The first
year would be devoted to the life of Jesus as given
in the synoptic Gospels, and the second year to the
growth of the Christian community — that is, of the
apostolic age. The conditions are the same as
those which apply to the First and Second Forms ;
in proportion as the instruction satisfies religious
interests and requirements, so will it improve the
72 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
historical sense of the pupil, and enable him to take
a deeper and more serious view of human life as
a whole ; in proportion as the master emphasizes
the historical, actual, and vivid side of his divinity
lessons, so will he stimulate the development of the
religious sense. The conception of humanity as a
whole is a religious idea, as we have said, a belief
that necessarily presupposes the existence of God.
This belief must be reality to anyone who washes to
learn how to study history, and during the two years
that are spent in the Fourth Form much can be done
toward the attainment of this object.
We now turn from side influences to the main
stream — to historical instruction as such. Here we
have to consider history and geography in connexion.
Such is the method of the Prussian syllabus, an
example generally followed elsewhere, at any rate
as regards the general scheme of studies printed at
the beginning of the syllabuses. It must be said that
the Prussian syllabus carefully avoids the usual line
of connexion in this general scheme in order to spare
the feelings of geographers, so that geography
retains an apparent independence. The fact is
undoubted that if German history is appointed for
the Fourth Form, and the geography of Europe apart
from Germany for the Third Form, then the only
possible geography for the Fourth is that of Germany.
We do not quite understand the regulations of the
Prussian syllabus of 1892 with reference to what is
known as physical geography. This syllabus pro-
vided for the Lower Fourth " revision of the political
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 73
geography of German y," and for the Upper Fourth
" revision of the physical geography of Germany ; "
here there seems to be a mistake or a misprint. It
is obvious that the reverse order is the more natural ;
political geography can be the more advantageously
revised the better the pupil knows the history of a
country, and should, for similar reasons, be preceded
by the physical geography of a country. This, there-
fore, must be assigned to the Lower Fourth. Of
" revision " there will not be much, for, as we have
observed, comparatively little is learnt and less
retained in the Second Form ; hence the study must
be begun practically from the outset. The Prussian
syllabus also added : for the Lower Fourth the
physical and political geography of the non-
European continents, with the exception of the
German colonies ; for the Upper Fourth the physical
geography of the German colonies. Thus the main
subject of study is that of the continents and German
colonies outside of Europe. This latter point, the
study of the colonies, may be accomplished by a
Fourth-Form boy in two or three lessons, and we are
therefore unable to understand why it should be
made the main subject for the Upper Fourth and put
down as an appendix to the physical geography of
Germany. The whole regulation is unintelligible,
and must be altered if confusion is to be avoided ;
we are fully convinced that these alterations will be
automatic, and that the physical and political
geography of the German Empire will be the subject
for the two years' course of the Fourth Form. This
74 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
subject will necessarily imply a discussion of the
German colonies, which is not likely to be of much
value without a revision of the physical and political
geography of the non-European continents, with
which the pupil first became acquainted in the First
and Second Forms. The syllabus of 1901 has thus
materially modified these regulations. The subject
for the Lower Fourth there appears as " geography
of the non-European continents — the German
colonies," while the subject for the Upper Fourth is
" revision and completion of the geography of the
German Empire." We prefer to reverse this order,
and to give the geograplry of the German Empire
eighteen months of the two years at our disposal,
leaving the geography of the other continents for
the last six months in the Upper Fourth. It is un-
necessary to point out how closely history and
geography are connected at this stage, but the con-
nexion can be made too close. The best theoretical
arrangement, and one that has been introduced by
competent teachers, would be the following :
First Year. — Introduction (for the whole of the
three lessons) ; physical geography of Germany and
German history until 164S (also for the three
lessons).
Second Year. — Introductory ; history of Branden-
burg-Prussia until 1648 ; German history to 1871,
concluding with the political geography of Germany
(throughout the three lessons a week).
This would be our arrangement if we were dealing
with the study of our own country with four hours
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 75
a week at our disposal in a university course ; but
it is not an arrangement to be recommended for
schools. Here we have to distinguish an arrange-
ment based upon three lessons a week, or two lessons
out of four in modern schools, as two lessons are
there devoted to continuous and connected geo-
graphical instruction ; generally speaking, in our
arrangement the Lower Fourth will deal with physical
and the Upper Fourth with political geography. For
pure historical teaching two lessons a week then
remain throughout the two years.
Before the year 1892 these two years were arranged
as follows in Prussia : The Lower Fourth studied
medieval history from about a.d. 476 to 1517, and
modern history from 1 517 to 1648 ; the Upper Fourth
studied the outlines of the history of Brandenburg-
Prussia until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, and
then the history of the last two hundred and fifty
years in greater detail. Where this arrangement is
in force, and German history is confined to a two
years' course in the middle stages, medieval history
must be greatly condensed. We would, however,
expressly insist that the history of Brandenburg-
Prussia until 1648 should be treated in Saxon,
Bavarian, and Wurtemberg schools precisely as it
is in Prussian schools ; it may be added that this
view was unanimously approved at the Berlin con-
ference of 1873. The syllabus of 1S92, however, in
Prussia abolished ancient history for the Lower Fifth,
and devoted this year to German history, so that by
the syllabus of 1901 the arrangement is as follows :
70 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
First Year (Lower Fourth). — German history to
1517 (medieval).
Second Year (Upper Fourth). —From 1517 to 1740.
Third Year (Lower Fifth).— From 1740 to 1871 (or
1888).
We shall make this arrangement our basis, but
our remarks will apply particularly to the Lower
Fifth.
It is an arrangement which enables us to work
through a comparatively detailed account of early
and medieval German history with the Lower Fourth.
At the same time the teacher must make his
arrangements beforehand, and decide which portions
he will treat in full detail, and in which he will
confine himself to the most essential facts. Here,
again, we have to distinguish between the parts
played by the text-book, by the teacher's lecture,
and by revision.
As regards the text-book, our previous remarks
are again applicable. It must be in simple language,
and deal with actual facts in a business-like manner ;
at the same time it must not be dry, and least of all
wearisome. Very many of our text-books strike
an unfortunate middle course between the chronicle
and the reading-book style of narrative, which is
diversified by occasional lapses into patriotic or
moral reflections ; their sole object is to subserve the
task of revision and of imprinting facts upon the
memory ; the text-book should help the student
during the lesson, and should be gradually worked
through at home in constant connexion with Form
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 77
teaching. Above all things it must give accurate
dates and plenty of them. At this stage it is of
high importance, and is, in our experience, a task
constantly neglected, to stimulate the chronological
sense, and to induce the habit of regarding dates
as something more than mere figures. For this
purpose the text-book must provide all material,
and at this stage, again, chronological tables in
addition to the text-book are to be rejected.
Superfluous also is a historical school atlas, though
good and cheap books of the kind are to be had (for
instance, Putzger). In any case we do not regard
such atlases as particularly useful during secondary
school instruction. For the first year in the Fourth
all that is required is a good wall-map of Europe ;
a physical map marking the most important names
is quite adequate. The pupil requires nothing more
for the illustration of the master's narrative com-
mentary. Meanwhile the question arises whether
at this stage the pupil could or should learn to use
his imagination for translating the map of modern
Germany, which he has in his school atlas, into the
map of Germany as it was in 1815 or in 1740 ; it
must be observed, and is constantly forgotten, that
he does not yet possess this power, which ought to be
acquired by degrees. We have every respect for the
objective method, but it is possible to have too much
of a good thing, and on this subject we shall speak
further. The use of the text-book will not differ
materially from that which obtains with the Third
Form. A section of the text-book will be read aloud
78 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
at this stage by one pupil alone ; one such reading
will be sufficient. The master then goes through the
narrative with all the stimulating detail that his
dexterity and knowledge of the subject will allow
him to introduce. The section or sections that have
been thus worked through in form will then be read
by the pupil at home. He will learn the facts so
that he can repeat them when questioned by the
master in the following lesson. At this stage the
use of note-books is not advisable. The text-book
for the Fourth Form will naturally be somewhat more
elaborate than that for the Third. In the case of
the Third-Form book every period is divided into
individual and self-contained stories ; in the Fourth'
Form the text-book is divided into sections in accord-
ance with the facts, for the reason that here the first
principles of arrangement begin to dawn upon the
pupil. It must also be noticed that at this stage
the teacher may handle the text-book with greater
freedom ; it is not necessary that every section
should be read aloud before he discusses it in detail,
though we considered that this method was generally
advisable for the Third Form. He may begin with
his narrative lecture, and attempt to realize the
lofty phrase which would have him present every
event and character before the pupil's very eyes ;
then the section in the text-book may be read aloud
as a summary of what has been said, after winch he
may proceed by the same method. It is the master
and his commentary which decide the character
of a lesson, and not the text-book. The text-
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 79
book is not on that account superfluous, and
should not be reduced to a secondary position,
but at the same time must play its own part and
no other.
Every possible talent may easily be demanded
for the master who gives a historical lecture to the
Fourth Form ; this lecture or commentary is, in its
own way, even more difficult than university
lecturing. One virtue, however, of all others it
must have, a virtue that is common to university or
any other kind of historical lecturing, and this is a
stern respect for truth. The Alpha and Omega of
historical teaching is that facts should be explained,
not only because they have happened, but also as
they have happened. With this Form we are
working upon the history of our own nation ; our
country is the object of study, and many teachers
accordingly think that a pathetic tone is demanded.
" Rejoice, German youths, with a thankful heart
for thy dear fatherland ! For to thee has been
granted what long was the warm and pious wish
of thy fathers — the German Empire of unity and
yet of inward diversity and of power beyond its
frontiers, the abiding-place of peace and moraHty for
the peoples of the earth !" Such is the opening
sentence of an Historical Text-book and Reading-book
from the Age of Charles the Great to the Present
Time. Class-room explanation of this kind is indeed
magnificent, but we doubt whether it produces
much patriotism ; this result is less likely for the
reason that " thy fathers " by no means so uni-
80 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
versally cherished this warm desire ; indeed, a con-
siderable proportion of them raised the most violent
opposition to this course of development. Even if
patriotism could be thus inspired we should be
sorry to rely upon any so produced. The master
who really feels the seriousness of so great a national
life as ours will doubtless in his heart be delighted
that he can play a modest but important part in
this great work. He will emphasize with readiness
and preference the fine, the great, and the capable
elements of our national history, but he will not
venture to be silent upon stories of oppression,
duplicity, and barbarity, were they ten times more
German than they are. For instance, under the
influence of Burschenschaft Teutonism historians
delighted to represent our forefathers as the quin-
tessence of uprightness and excellence. The state-
ment is unpatriotic because it is not true. It is
permissible to praise the primitive Teutons, and to
grant them all that Tacitus, who idealized them,
has said by way of contrast to the vices of a decadent
civilization. At the same time even the Fourth-Form
boy must be informed that, like other barbarians,
they had some of the vices of barbarism. There
was the revengeful cruelty of which Tacitus speaks
(Annals, i. 61) in describing the discoveries on the
battle-field where Varus was defeated ; they had
also the same lack of straightforwardness as is
related by Velleius Paterculus (ii. 118) in reference
to the disaster of Varus : At illi, quod nisi expert us
(as he himself was) vix credat, in summa feritate
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 81
versutissimi natumque mendacio genus, simulantes
ficlas litium series et nunc provocantes alter alterum
injuria, nunc agentes gratias, quod ea Romana justitia
finiret jeritasque sua novitate incognita; discipline
mitesceret et solita armis discerni jure terminarentur ,
in summam socordiam perduxere Quintilium. This
mode of procedure is often represented as highly
praiseworthy strategy in the fine colouring of
patriotism, even as many text -books have found it
possible to assure our youths that Frederick the
Great was really a sound Christian. I do not know
whether it is quite true that our nation is free from
national pride, but I do know that a healthy nation
or an intelligent man must be able to endure the
truth. One method, and perhaps the most effective,
of telling a nation the truth is that instruction in
national history which the master gives to youth in
Forms under his care.
We must now recognize the further advantage
that for this Form, the Lower Fourth, we have to
deal with the so-called Middle Ages. In this period
the figures, the institutions, and the important
events have a certain romantic attraction, especially
for boyhood, when a capacity for gaining a vivid
realization of these times is either wanting or is
insufficiently acute. The fact is especially true,
for example, of the royal figures of Conrad I., of
Otto II. and Otto III., and to some extent of
the Hohenstaufen. The picture will be strongly
idealized because the details of its past are very
alien to ourselves, and transmitted by chroniclers
6
82 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
of very defective capacity. Mature minds are in
little better case even after reading the original
sources, or a narrative so detailed as the seven
volumes of Giesebrecht. In any case it is the per-
sonal element that is most easily realized, and this
must therefore be made prominent. We refer to the
personal and not to the biographical element, and,
so far as is permitted by the course of events and by
the circumstantial details to be worked into the
narrative, we should advise the teacher to rely upon
a choice of definite characters, and to make them as
realistic as possible by this method. At this stage
the master must clearly understand the necessity of
abandoning the ordinary uniform method of treat-
ment, for the reason that the historical material at
his disposal is too extensive. He must clearly and
carefully distinguish between the narrative of his-
torical fact, which fact will be divided into the
clearest possible sections, and the narrative dealing
with the manner of the fact ; this will be related upon
broader lines with as much characteristic detail as the
scanty time allotted permits. Instances of the first
division are the whole period until a.d. 476, the early
history of Rome and the Teutonic world ; here full
narratives can be given of the first conflicts between
Varus and Arminius, between Arminius and his
brother Flavius (Tacitus, Annals, ii. 9, 10). Later,
only special details can be given ; for instance, the
character of Attila, as derived from the impressions
of eyewitnesses, such as the Greek Priscus at his
embassy in 446 ; Theoderich and Chlodovech can be
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 83
individualized only to a moderate extent ; the figure
of Charles the Great can be depicted more easily
and with greater detail. This latter figure can be
made the subject of three or four narrative lessons,
as warrior, conqueror, restorer of the Imperium
JRomanum, and as ruler, as the zealous and self-
taught prince who eagerly fostered education, trade,
and civilization. Here an opportunity arises for
introducing some points with reference to the
history of civilization ; something can be done after
the style of Guizot in the twentieth lesson of his
Histoire de la Civilisation en France, where he deals
with Hincmar in order to give the pupil an idea of
the conduct of business in the assemblies of Charles
the Great, and of the general duties of his Missi.
On the other hand, the whole period from 814 to
911, or even to 936, and the reigns of Otto II. and
III., cannot be explained continuously ; some leading
tendencies and facts with other landmarks of the kind
can be given, and a character briefly sketched here
and there as occasion arises. The First, and cer-
tainly the Third Crusade can be fully detailed, but
of the other Crusades only the main outlines can be
given. In this case we do not propose any attempt
to exhaust the whole of the allotted period. It is
obvious that considerable liberty of choice is here
left to the master, and that the better he knows his
subject, the better he will select points for special
treatment ; in this power of independent choice
much of his skill and capacity as a historical
teacher lies. We need not discuss the point further,
6—2
84 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
and will only refer to some special difficulties which
arise in dealing with medieval history in a Lower-
Fourth Form.
The first difficulty is also one that affects the
subject-matter allotted to the succeeding Form, and
it is this : notwithstanding the wealth of our his-
torical literature and the numerous German histories
of every kind and length, we have as yet no suitable
book. A book in two or three volumes is required
which will provide the master who has to teach
this period to the rising generation at once with the
substance of what he has to say and an example of
the manner in which it should be said. The fact is
not surprising. Such a narrative would be far harder
to write in this case than in the case of any other
nation, with the possible exception of Italian history.
We shall not be far wrong in saying that it was only
a short time ago, in 1870 and 1871, that the most
important preliminary work for the writing of such
a book was performed ; other learned preliminary
monographs are still in progress, and prove, as in
the case of true historical investigators, that religious
or party prejudices form no obstacle to the com-
position of a truly national narrative. A case in
point is the excellent work of Moritz Ritter, which
deals with a period exceedingly difficult to handle
for secondary schools (1555-1648).* There is thus
here a great deficiency to be made good, and mean-
* Deutsche Geschichte, 1555-1648, vol. i., Stuttgart, 1889;
vol. ii., 1895. The first half of vol. iii. (to 1625) appeared in
1901. The remaining half is expected shortly.
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 85
while the teacher must use such helps as he can find ;
these, at any rate where he is a beginner, will show
him the amount and extent of the detail to be
employed, and this is no small service. If he be
entrusted with a section of historical teaching for
any length of time, he will be obliged by degrees
to read a number of special histories, and also to
take from the school library, at first for his own
instruction, the German translations of the original
authorities for the Middle Ages.
A second difficulty is the fact that ecclesiastical
and dogmatic considerations, of which the Fourth-
Form boy knows very little, play so important a
part in medieval history. The pupil does not as
yet understand the fierce animosity that arose on
dogmatic points upon the coexistence of the two
natures in Christ, upon the procession of the Holy
Ghost in 6/jloiov<tig<; or o/ioovctlos, upon Arianism,
Athanasianism, etc. The whole limit of ideas
which dominated medieval humanity is totally
unknown to the pupil, who therefore runs a danger
which did not arise in the study of ancient history —
the danger of gaining a wholly distorted view of
many great and important events. It is, indeed, a
much more difficult task to make a boy understand
the importance of Gregory VII., Innocent III., or
Alexander III. than of Socrates or Demosthenes,
or even of Plato. The master, especially if he be a
Protestant, must be careful in dealing with the
history of Henry IV. or Frederick II. not to paint
hierarchical greed for power in too vivid colours.
86 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
There are, however, sides of medieval life which can
be brought closely home to the pupil's intelligence.
He can understand the elements of heroism, not
merely that of chivalry, but also that of renuncia-
tion, as it appears in the pure forms of the monastic
system. He can understand, too, the civilizing work
of monasticism, can appreciate figures like St. Gall
and the battle of his Irish monks with the demons
of the wilderness. The master therefore must resist
the temptation, which in our days is often strong, to
emphasize unduly the ridiculous side of medieval life
and its unbounded credulity ; for modern rationalism
attempts upon occasion, with refined hypocrisy, to
represent the simple beliefs of the medieval world
as so many attempts at self-aggrandizement.
At certain points of Lower-Fourth instruction this
difficulty merges into another, of which we shall
speak later. It is a fact that the line of demarca-
tion which has divided the German and the European
world for some four centuries is already obvious in
the history, for instance, of the fifteenth century,
in the conflict between the Reformers and the Pope,
and, on the other side, between the Reformers of the
Council of Constance and John Huss. These diffi-
culties, however, can be met by tact and dexterity
on the teacher's part. A Lower-Fourth-Forni boy is
not likely to understand the special point of the Con-
stance tragedy, which induced the majority of the
Council to put a Reformer to death as a heretic. He
can, however, understand that an honourable man.
who might have saved his life by renouncing what
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 87
he believed to be true, preferred death to renuncia-
tion ; he may gain a healthy horror of the disgrace
inflicted upon the Christian religion by the practice
de comburendo hceretico, and if tins horror becomes
part of his life the consequence is but one of the
many benefits which historical instruction can and
should effect.
The difficulty becomes more obvious in the period
covered by the Upper Fourth — the period of modern
German history, which cannot be so easily separated
from European history as in the case of the Lower
Fourth. An instance is the first period from 1517
to 1648. The difficulty consists in the fact that
every Form is a mixture of different religious creeds
in varying percentages — in other words, there are
thirty-two millions of Protestants and eighteen mil-
lions of Catholics in the German Empire, leaving the
smaller religious bodies out of consideration. The
problem grows more important as the upper stages
are reached, but some discussion must be devoted
to it at this point. We would first protest against
one means of confronting the difficulty — the pro-
vision of different editions of the same text-book
for Catholic and for Evangelical schools. Such a
proposal is almost an insult to the German secondary
school system, and is in any case useless, as there
are very few schools which are entirely Evangelical
or entirely Catholic. Our systematic, or so-called
scientific, works upon pedagogics and teaching theory
generally seem to avoid the point ; and naturally so,
for it is a question of practice, and does not arise in
88 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
theory. History is history for Catholic and Pro-
testant alike. It will be also readily admitted
that hitherto the difficulty has not appeared particu-
larly acute. Agitation has not yet invaded this
sphere, and the long, persistent use of the text-
books of Putz in many Evangelical schools, and the
books of Herbst in many Catholic schools, shows that
here all is peaceful as yet. It is possible that the
peace will not be of long duration, and the matter
deserves our serious consideration from an educa-
tional point of view and sense of duty, which we
must carefully distinguish from the standpoint of
school politics or from politics of any kind. Hence
we may set down some plain rules, drawn from
information kindly given us by Catholic and Evan-
gelical history teachers. In the first place, the
master must remember that his business is to relate
history as it happened, to explain how men acted
under the special conditions of time, place, morals,
civilization or the want of it. It is not the master's
business to glorify the Catholic or Evangelical con-
ception of Christianity ; tins can be left to the
clergy or to such occasions as are not specially
concerned with historical teaching. In the second
place, the master must clearly distinguish in his
mind between the idea of the Church, whether
Catholic or Protestant, and its earthly and fallible
servants and champions, and this distinction must
be made plain to the pupil. In the third place, the
Protestant history teacher who notoriously is in this
point free and independent enough, thanks to the idea
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 89
of the invisible Church, should lay great stress
on such members of the Catholic Church as have
deserved well of humanity, dwelling with no less
emphasis upon deficiencies or failures on the Pro-
testant side where such occur. When the persecu-
tion of different faiths comes in question, let him
avoid the dangerous prejudice which represents the
Roman Church as alone guilty in this respect. The
fact is obviously untrue, and our instruction must
combat this sad and miserable side of human
nature in every form, and for this purpose expose
its misdeeds, whether they happened at Rome,
Geneva, Dresden, or elsewhere.
At this point we can go a step further. We reject
every premeditated attempt to stimulate patriotism,
but we do not wish to underrate the patriotic influ-
ence of the study of national history, or, rather, the
influence of the German who teaches that history.
We have, indeed, every reason to bring this force
into play at the present moment. The fact is
obvious that within the last ten years there has
been a revival of religious exclusiveness and fanati-
cism. Some ground had been temporarily, if not
definitely, gained, but this has once more been lost —
let us hope, not for long. It is, therefore, a duty
imposed on us, not by the State, by a Ministry, or
an Educational Council, but by the genius of our
nation and the Christian religion, to repair this
deficiency. The work can be done quietly, with-
out rhetorical flourish. It is necessary for the his-
torical teacher in our secondary schools to present
90 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
the national history of the last four centuries from
a wider point of view than that which is afforded
to the limited vision of a definite religious party or
creed. At the same time it must not be forgotten,
in dealing with the Upper-Fourth Form, that our
patriotism is not the narrow national pride of the
Englishman or the Spaniard, nor, again, is it the
Chauvinism of the Frenchman ; it is open-hearted
and free, and desirous of comprehending its nation
and its history as part of a great connected European
development. The period from 1517 to 1871 is un-
intelligible considered purely as German history ;
the extremely difficult period from 1555 to 1648 is
best treated, not merely as German, but as European
history. At this stage, when seed of this kind does
not immediately bear fruit, but is not entirely
lost, it is advisable to emphasize the positive and
creative importance of the ecclesiastical separa-
tion ; for instance, to explain how the opposition
between the two different conceptions of Christianity,
known as Catholicism and Protestantism, provided
a stimulus to European life which prevented
stagnation and forced it to advance from step to
step.
As regards revision, revision of every preceding
lesson is in every case highly valuable, and especially
valuable in the Fourth Form. Historical matter is
not connected, as are mathematical or grammatical
details, by any clear law, even when the master is
able to deliver his explanations with a clarity and
precision of expression which many of our famous
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 91
historical investigators and writers have failed to
acquire. The subject is exposed to the possibility
of many misunderstandings, confusions, and dis-
placements. Half-knowledge is common, and its
effects are even more disastrous than complete
ignorance ; hence every series of events — for instance,
the very difficult history preliminary to the Thirty
Years' War — must necessarily be gone through
twice : once by way of narration and description,
and again by way of revision. We should also
advise that revision, even of the second kind — the
general revision of large sections of history — should
be performed with special reference at this stage to
actual facts and events. The methods above out-
lined should be used in somewhat elementary form,
and the leading motives treated somewhat super-
ficially. Questions should be of the following form :
With what foreign enemies had Germany to struggle
in the ninth, tenth, and other centuries ? What
nationalities conquered and devastated Italy from
a.d. 476 to 1527 ? Which of these nations left
permanent traces of its occupation upon the
country ? What part of Germany and what countries
of Europe adhered to the Augsburg Confession, and
winch remained by the Old Church at the outset of
the seventeenth century ? What districts of Germany
became seats of war during the Thirty Years' War
and other wars ? And so forth.
In our opinion, there is no material difference
between historical teaching in the classical schools
and the corresponding classes of the modern schools-
92 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
In the Prussian syllabus of 1892 an extra hour
(2+2) is granted to "history and geography,"
which hour is very properly assigned to geography.
The history teaching at these institutions seems to
us of special importance for the reason that the
influences which can foster the historical sense are
provided in but very moderate amount by the other
subjects of instruction in the modern school. The
learning of English at tins stage widens the intel-
lectual horizon, as does the learning of any new
foreign tongue. It is, however, by the whole
organization and object of the modern school,
devoted to purposes primarily and immediately
practical, and very reasonably, too ; but the in-
direct benefits which in other cases can be expected
from so many sides as a stimulus to historical per-
ception are here inconsiderable. Historical teaching
has, by its very essence, both a realist and an
idealist side. The men of whom we read were
beings of like passions with ourselves, experiencing
our own needs, our own weaknesses, and our own
ambitions ; but the wide connexion in which we
meet them gives them a character similar to the
heroes of Greek mythology. We hope we shall not
be misunderstood when we say that in the classical
school the realistic side should be emphasized, while
in the modern school the ideal side should be brought
out. In other words, had we more time at our
disposal for teaching history in the modern school
where Latin is not learnt, we should, in treating of
the Crusades, dwell less upon the commercial results,
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 93
and more upon the religious impulse due to these
enterprises, and handle the point with less detail
in the classical school.
Lower Fifth.
Here we reach the last year of the central stage,
which we have assumed for our purpose. The new
organization in Prussia, which has been in force
since the time of the so-called scholastic reform,
has given this Form a somewhat special character.
The Form is preparing for the junior leaving certifi-
cate, for it was not to be expected that any educa-
tional reform in Germany or Prussia would miss
the opportunity of instituting a new examination.
The examination has now been abolished, but the
hypothesis on which it rested remains. It was
assumed that this Form would have closed the first
stage in the education of a scholar, and the assump-
tion as such was justified. The pupils thus will
realize more clearly the fact that they have reached
the turning-point, for the reason that a certain
number of their comrades now leave school for
practical or industrial life, though by no means so
many as seem to have been expected when the
examination was introduced. There was at least
one good point in the certificate examination — it
gave an ocular proof to the members of this Form
of the serious nature of their position. It is true
that, after the introduction of the examination,
every possible effort was made to lower this impor-
04 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
tance. It was not to be taken very seriously, and
was nothing more than an ordinary school examina-
tion of somewhat more formal nature. The scholars
at this stage, however, regarded it as a serious
business, more seriously, perhaps, than the senior
leaving certificate will be considered. At this point
we propose to make a small divergence into the
region of school politics, which have no immediate
connexion with our subject. There is a band of
zealous humanists, with whom we agree in all
essential points, which offers a strong opposition to
the grant of any concessions to Lower-Fifth boys
who leave their school. In the Berlin Conference of
1873 Bonitz designated them as deserters from the
flag. This body accordingly desires to make the well-
known privilege of one year's military service con-
ditional upon passing the school-leaving certificate,
or at any rate upon concluding the full secondary
course. We regard this last rigorous measure as
neither useful nor feasible. P. Cauer, the learned
and zealous champion of this view, says that the
classical school is a school for the few, and not for
the many. We, however, consider it much more
to the interest of the nation that the leading classes
in trade and manufacture, in military and technical
pursuits, in town councils and Parliament, should
contain a strong infusion of men who have gone
through a secondary course of education, even if
they have only reached the Upper Fifth. Hence, in
our view, the secondary school is a school, not for
the few, but for as many as possible. Therefore
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 95
we consider that the syllabus should not be cut
short at the Lower Fifth, as was done in the Prussian
scheme of 1892 ; it should be drawn up as if every
pupil in a secondary school were to make the leaving
certificate Ins final object. We do not see why
those who leave from the Lower Fifth, often much
against their will and under force of circumstances,
should be called deserters from the flag, or should
be considered a guantite negligeable as regards the
famous right of a certificate. The regulation in
any case would be of little use, as the instruction
in the Lower Fifth, and the teachers who give it,
would naturally be strongly influenced by considera-
tion for those who were shortly to appear as can-
didates for certificates. There will always be some
who wish or are obliged to leave from the Lower
Fifth, and their special case has been considered
without injuring the vital principles of secondary
instruction in the historical period set down for
study by this Form. At this point we must make
a virtue of necessity, and extract what benefit
may be gained from the new regulation. Though
the Form is regarded as a concluding stage, it must
be so handled as to advance the progress of those
who intend to enter the higher stages. In fact,
the character of the Form work is " conclusive," is
intended to produce positive benefit, and such
benefit will be apparent somewhere in our special
subject. Of Greek and Latin we need speak no
further ; they remain the chief source of influence for
developing the historical sense, much as their efficacy
no THE TEACHING OF HTSTORY
has been impaired under the new era in Prussia.
Now that linguistic difficulties are less predominant,
the Anabasis of Xenophon can be better appreciated,
and the Homeric world is now first opened to the
form. Even for those who leave at the end of the
school year this work is by no means entirely lost.
In Latin Cicero's speeches are read, some Sallust or
Livy, and some poetry. Virgil — in Prussia at least
— is almost too difficult, but Ovid's Fasti can be
read at this stage, and provides numerous pictures
of Roman holiday customs and working life in easy
and suitable selections. As regards French, the
advantages of this language are better appreciated
— its clarity of expression and the relative perfec-
tion of its prose. If it should happen that a good
modern play is read, the delicacy of French dialogue
becomes more obvious. Thus the pupils learn to
appreciate the high qualities of a foreign neighbour-
ing nation immediately through their language, which
was impossible in the Fourth Form, and the results
are also of importance as contributing to the historical
sense of justice and truth. It will be objected that
these matters have but a very indirect connexion
with historical teaching. This objection we admit.
Even more indirect at this stage is, possibly, the study
of German literature, though it is highly important
as contributing to that side of culture which we
understand under the term " historical sense."
German literature lessons, where they are concerned
with reading, undergo an essential change of char-
acter at this stage. In the last four months of the
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 97
Upper - Fourth-Form instruction more important
dramatic works are usually read, to which prac-
tice no objection can possibly be raised. As we
have said, we should like to add such patriotic
pieces as Uhland's Herzog Ernst, Kleist's Prinz
von Honnburg, Goethe's Gbtz von Berlichingen ;
but we should not follow the proposals of the
Prussian syllabus of 1892 in adding Schiller's Tell,
which is much more suitable for a Fifth Form. The
Fourth Form is more concerned with the matter of
poetry than with the art or spirit of it, and has no
appreciation of its beauty as such. This is no mis-
fortune in itself, and must be accepted. The change
begins, as it should, in the Lower Fifth. Here pupils
read various dramatic works of first-rate merit —
Tell, the Jungfrau von Orleans, Hermann und
Dorothea. They are now introduced to poetry as
a work of art, and rise above the mere consideration
of the subject-matter. Any German that is read
in this Form should be read from the {esthetic point
of view.* We assert as a definite principle in this
Form that the study of German literature should
have no direct connexion with the historical in-
struction. Schiller's Tell derives no interest or
effect from the fact that at one time in the year
a.d. 1308 some events of the kind actually happened
* By this we do not mean to agree with the statement
of the Prussian syllabus of 1892, which says on p. 15 : " The
commentary is to be as simple as possible, and to be governed
by the purpose of enabling the pupil to comprehend the whole
as a self-contained work of art." This was not repeated in 1901.
7
98 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
in Switzerland. The poet here makes free use of
historical fact for his own purpose, and his pro-
cedure is justified by the beauty which he has
created. It is unhistorical, but is eternally true,
and does not profess to be what actually happened,
or was supposed to have happened, at any definite
time in the fourteenth or fifteenth or any other
century. Naturally, any extension of outlook or
clarity of ideas which the pupil may gain from good,
or even from moderately good, German literature
lessons is so much advantage to the historical
teacher. The advantage, however, in this case is
derived by a negative process, by the comparison
of poetical with historical truth, by the distinction
between what happened at a definite time and place
through the action of definite people, and is thus
true or actual, and that which never happened at
any time anywhere, but is none the less true of all
times and places ; this is a distinction that becomes
clearer to the pupil's consciousness at this stage.
At the same time the distinction is connected with
a further point which the teacher must carefully
consider. We have said earlier that true historical
teaching can only begin when some idea, however
vague, has been secured of the difference between
what actually happened and what is only said by
poetry or legend to have happened. At this age
and stage of school life the psychological process
is completed ; historical criticism comes into being,
and should be trained by the master at intervals
and tactfully, but certainly not avoided entirely.
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 99
A Third-Form boy is sorry to hear that Tell had no
actual existence ; a Fifth-Form boy feels differently,
because for him this heroic figure lives in a much
higher sense. Hence we assume that when occasion
arises, the history master may turn to this point.
He should not touch upon it too frequently, or
with ulterior object, and certainly not in order to
display his own learning ; but it is worth while to
take some traditional or widespread falsehood, some
one of the ineradicable stories of historical assassina-
tions and legendary cruelties, and refute it critically
by the use of evidence. This process strengthens
the sense of historical truth, and the mind thus
trained is not likely to be attracted, for instance, by
the foolish and malignant gossip concerning the
suicide of Luther, or the many poisonings attributed
to the Jesuits.
To historical study as such — that is, to history
and geography — three lessons a week (2+1) are
assigned in Prussia and elsewhere. As regards the
particular geography to be studied, there can be
no doubt, in view of the fact that tins Form is the
concluding stage for some pupils, and is a relative
conclusion for others. This subject is the political
geography of the European states, with constant
reference to the corresponding conditions in the
German Empire. The task of comparison is easy
and highly instructive, as, in accordance with our
presuppositions, the geography of Germany has
formed the main theme of geographical instruction
during the two years in the Fourth Form. These
7—2
100 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
two geographical points are in congruity with the
historical period assigned to the Lower Fifth by the
Prussian syllabus, winch requires the last hundred
and fifty years of German-Prussian history. This
is a period which can only be treated as German-
European, whatever people may say.* We must
not, however, be led astray in this matter by the
Prussian syllabus of 1901 — " Revision and comple-
tion of the geography of Europe, with the excep-
tion of the German Empire." Were this instruction
in our hands, we should take the liberty of con-
sidering the above-mentioned comparison as the
desired and necessary completion. Two lessons a
week are given in the modern schools for the same
sensible object. For the moment we assume this
syllabus as fixed ; it is already obvious that the
equipment of the classical school pupil who enters
practical life after six years at school includes but one
year of ancient history, and on this we shall have to
speak when we proceed to discuss the Upper Fifth.
* " The history of other countries," say the Prussian syllabuses
of 1892 and 1901, " is only to be introduced so far as is necessary
for the understanding of German and Brandenburg-Prussian
history." This, however, implies a good deal of European
history before the period from 1740 to 1871 ; we cannot understand
how, for instance, the Napoleonic epoch from 1804 to 1815 can
be treated except as European history. Nobody as yet has
proposed to introduce into this period the domestic history of
England or Russia or Sweden. We do not, however, wish that
our historical instructions and conceptions should sink to the
level of English historical writing as represented by A History
of our Own Times (McCarthy), which means nothing more than a
history of England of our own times.
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 101
Here we must say a word on geographical instruc-
tion. Our remarks may not be very idealistic, and
wall possibly be in contradiction to the views of
many respected geographical meetings, though it is
known that geographers, like all specialists, are
inclined to consider that the business of school-
boys is to study their special subject throughout
every hour that can be secured for the purpose.
We should certainly be wrong in acceding to the
views of Bonitz at the Berlin Conference of 1873,
who wished to deprive geography of its character as
a science, and said that it was but a mosaic of more
or less useful scraps of knowledge collected from
many other departments. It is possible to give a
description of the present conditions of our planet
in strictly scientific form, and so far geography is a
science ; but for school purposes — and we refer to
classical as well as modern or commercial schools —
we are obliged to emphasize the utilitarian character
of geography as a school subject, especially in the
Lower Fifth. Geography, in our opinion at this stage,
has to be directed to the very excellent and im-
portant object of providing pupils, whether they
aim at practical life or further study, with useful
knowledge concerning the position, the products,
the resources, the wealth, the civilization, etc., of
the European States, with continual reference to
the conditions which obtain in Germany. For two
years Germany has been the object of historical
teaching ; for a third year, in the Lower Fifth, geo-
graphy must be concerned with the political de-
LIB
UNIVERSITY 01
102 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
scription of the European world, in the centre of
which our country stands, the object being that
the pupil may compare in every case the conditions
prevalent in his own country with those of other
countries. He will learn that the French army
contains so many hundred thousand men, and the
German army so many hundred thousand ; that
England or Germany owns so many cattle, sheep,
horses, and donkeys ; he will learn the per-
centage of illiterates in Spain as compared with
Germany, etc.
Thus, our opinion is that, at this point, even in
the classical school, a strongly practical element
should be introduced. Classical schools are by no
means so idealistic as they are represented, and
even in the department of history we should like
to see a strong and practical realism side by side
with idealism. Utilitarianism and science are by
no means mutually opposed.* Learning must,
indeed, be pursued for the sake of learning, and
Latin, Greek, or mathematics, from this point of
view, are no trivial matters ; but all theoretical and
practical educationists of any soundness will admit
* W. Munch, in his latest work, Zukunftspddagogik (Berlin,
1904), p. 216, says : " The contrast between utilitarianism and
idealism as factors in education must not be considered so sharply
as has hitherto been customary. The one standpoint does not
exclude the other, and in any case the subject matter of education
can be given one or the other character, as desirable." This is
and always has been our opinion, and we are therefore not affected
by the reproach made by Munch on p. 208, when he refers to
" the older representatives of our higher educational system."
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 103
that boys of fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen years
at this stage, can be emphatically reminded that they
are learning for the work of life, and not for life in
general, but for the life of their own people and
state ; that as they are to be hereafter active
citizens of the German Empire, they must learn its
history and geography, and become intimate both
with these and with the history and geography of
the rest of Europe. Hence, geography in the Lower
Fifth is the proper place for that practical instruction
in political economy which belongs properly to the
middle school. At this point should be stated those
economic facts which have characterized European
life, not merely to-day or yesterday, but within the
last hundred years or earlier.
It is in this sense that we agree with the new
regulation for Prussian and other classical schools,
which lays down the historical period for the Lower
Fifth as consisting of German and European history
from 1740 to 1871, with a short chronicle of events
until 1888. It is in view of these considerations
that we resign ourselves to the loss of the two years'
course in ancient history, although this course was
a very effective and beneficial influence, for the
reason that the interaction of thorough historical
study and thorough linguistic study provided active
opposition to superficiality and to breadth without
depth. Much, however, as we may despise the so-
called spirit of the age, we must none the less accomo-
date ourselves to certain necessities of the age, and
if we make a concession for intelligible reasons,
104 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
we must make it absolutely and without reserva-
tion.
When we consider the special historical instruc-
tion for the Lower Fifth according to the Prussian
organization now in force we meet with a remarkable
difficulty of an unexampled nature — the fact that
we have too much time at our disposal. For the
treatment of the history of one hundred and thirty
years in 2 x 40 = 80 lessons our masters are neither
prepared nor have we available text-books, though,
as may easily be imagined, some of these latter
have been put on the market in a hurry.*
The new regulations quietly presuppose that
every teacher throughout the secondary schools of
our country can in one night acquire the capacity
assumed by the official syllabus, including a know-
ledge of " the comparative development of our
social and economic system." In my opinion, how-
ever, it will be as difficult for most teachers as it
has been for me to gain a clear idea of complex con-
nexions and of the depths of national character for
the purpose of Form teaching. Other history masters
will doubtless have experienced, or will discover,
that the more detailed the narrative winch is given
to a Form (and in this case detail is inevitable) the
more difficult is its treatment. I have no doubt
that a conscientious teacher will be able to over-
come these difficulties, and that they will be con-
* Not to be confused with the better and more carefully
arranged text-books — such, for instance, as that for Lower-Fifth
instruction, by Moldenhauer, Berlin, 189-4, second edition.
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 105
quered in many instances by the sole means at the
master's disposal — his own powers and industry.
In any case, the subject will be brought to the
attention of head-masters' conferences. Much con-
sideration will be devoted to the theory, and some
thirty, sixty, or a hundred papers written upon it ;
but until these have had their effect we who have
grown old in this business may be allowed to put
forth some simple rules for younger colleagues.
1. The distribution of the period between 1740-
1871 must be made from the general standpoint of
European history, not from that of German or
Prussian history as such. The main periods will thus
be 1740-1789, 1789-1815, 1815-1871. The distribu-
tion must be one that can be always resumed in
lectures to the Upper Sixth.
2. An introduction is advisable, giving a clear
survey of Brandenburg- Prussian history, as a part
of general German history. This need be no more
detailed in Prussian schools than in those of Saxony
or Wurtemberg, and the same is true vice versa.
As it is part of German history, it should be no
shorter in the schools of Saxony or Wurtemberg than
in those of Prussia.*
3. Events, characters, and descriptions should be
handled as far as possible consecutively, upon the
Homeric principle ; but a lesson or two should be
devoted before beginning the period 1789-1815
* This statement now seems comparatively obvious, yet at
the Berlin Conference of 1873 under Falk it was received as a
new and acceptable idea.
106 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
to the condition of the Holy Roman Empire
(Biedermann, Deutschland im vorigen JaJirhundert,
vol. i.).
4. There should be no strategical descriptions
of battles, but, when possible, the characteristic
features of any important battle should be men-
tioned. Such features will be found, for instance,
in the descriptions of the Seven Years' War in
Carlyle's Frederick the Great — a very useful book
for the teacher's preparation, and a book that
can be recommended to the classical school teacher
of history, together with the classical work of
Reinhold Koser (1903).
5. Special care should be taken in treating of
economic and social influences lest the teacher be
found to waste his time. Most of these develop-
ments, and also the services of individual Prussian,
and other rulers, are, and always have been, an
integral part of historical instruction. The work
of the Elector Frederick William after the Thirty
Years' War, of Frederick the Great after the Seven
Years' War, of Frederick William III. by the reforms
of Stein-Hardenberg, and after the war of 1813-
1815, in organizing and introducing the Customs
Union in their own country and in Germany, has
never undergone revision. It is to be supposed
that pupils have learnt by degrees, in their passage
from the Fifth Form to the Lower Fifth, what is
meant by the terms "money," "taxes," "burden of
taxation," " domestic economy," " competition,"
"duties," "protective duties," etc.; what a Cus-
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 107
toms Union is, and many other things of the kind.
As regards, however, the existing conditions of the
constitution and its administration, the essential
points, together with the so-called science of civics,
belong to the geographical lesson.
6. Treatment in this case should be unequal in
point of detail. Some points should be fully de-
tailed, others expounded only in outline by means
of a clearly arranged conspectus. Thus, the events
of 1813, and even the military movements of that
year, are to be fully narrated, because they com-
bine every element which can make historical narra-
tive impressive, and are thus easily remembered.
On the other hand, a detailed narrative of the war
between 1792 and 1801 would be waste of time.
7. Special difficulties are offered by the history of
the period from 1815 to any point earlier than the
present date. The statement is especially true of
the section from 1848 to 1852, though the preceding
sections — 1815-1830 and 1830-1848 — are compara-
tively simple, and can be shortly explained. None
the less, those four years contain the crisis of the
century, and, as we have time at our disposal, they
should be treated in full detail , the more so as in the
Sixth Form, where the time is very short, it will be
necessary to rely partly upon such impressions and
recollections as may remain of the detailed teaching
in the Lower Fifth. On the other hand, the period
from 1852-1863 can be treated with brevity. Only
the essential points need be emphasized — the Crimean
War, the Austro-French War, and the fruitless
108 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
attempt to secure German unity. Explanation
should be given of the extreme danger to which the
nation was exposed, and its almost desperate condi-
tion, whether real or apparent, in 1863. Adequate
time must be left for 1863-1871; 1866 should be
carefully treated, the central idea being that it was
better for our nation to learn the nonentity of the
old German Federal Constitution by means of a war
of the new Germany against the old, by a victory
of Prussia over Austria and Federal Germany, than
by the victory of a foreign nation — France — over
our own. These are events but forty years old, yet
they have lost their bitterness for Germany through
the war of 1870, and for Austria through the Alliance
of October 15, 1879, and through the fact that the
intellectual ties between the Germans of the Empire
and Austria have become far closer than previous
to 1866.
The narrative proper, or historical lecture, is to
end with 1871 and the revival of German nationalism.
Times change. In my youth the door was closed
with 1815, and the master was not supposed to
touch upon events subsequent to that boundary-
line ; now a good idea is pushed to exaggeration,
and we are to continue until 1888 or to the present
time. The present time means the very moment
at which we are speaking, and in the year 1895 the
master would have been obliged to touch upon the
war between China and Japan, in the year 1900
upon the Transvaal War, and in 1904 upon the
Russo-Japanese War, etc. It is impossible, how-
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 109
ever, to teach everything at school, and facts should
not be taught as " history " which are not really
history for the teacher, standing as he does amid
the confusion of contradictions, and are, therefore,
rather unsuitable matter of instruction for the
pupils. A mere chronicle narrative of one hour
will suffice.*
As regards the teacher's lecture and its style, we
propose to say but little at this stage. The en-
thusiasm inspired by the subject-matter can no
more be taught than personality or character. The
lecture can only be " fine," if it is true, and it is
only true when it is the expression of a strong and
manly character inspired by faithful devotion to the
nation. On this subject, however, we have much
reason for cherishing good hopes. At the present
time we are involved in a great public life ; a
merely private existence is no longer possible to
anyone, and certainly not to the history master at
a classical or modern school. Hence something
of that «£ uv.wv -row irpay/xaTcov efts which Polybius
demands will communicate itself by degrees to our
historical teaching, both at other stages and at this,
where in a certain sense it is most necessary. During
* Schiller's Handbuch des praktischen Pcidagogik, second
edition, p. 562, says : " It is obvious merely from the events of
1888 that modern history cannot be concluded with the year
1871 " ; this is a somewhat precipitate mode of deciding the
question. However important the events of 1888 may be they
cannot decide the question whether it is possible or advisable
to make the history of the last thirty years from 1871 a subject
of regular school instruction.
110 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
the period over which I can look back a great change
has already taken place in this respect. The purely-
professorial tone has largely died out, and a symptom
of the change is the fact that many more teachers
are able to lecture " extempore " than in the time
of my youth. The word " extempore " must be taken
cum grano salts. The first requirement is truth.
Moreover, at the stage which we have reached, the
lecture or commentary must be marked by a greater
degree of consecutiveness, and no objection can,
therefore, be raised if the schoolmaster follows the
example of great orators and professors by writing
notes of what he proposes to say, and using his
notes as he speaks. The notes may extend to a
notebook if he wishes.
Revision will obviously proceed as before. The
matter given to the Form in any one lesson will be
repeated at the outset of the following lesson, and
when a section of the period has been worked through
the whole will be revised. Another method which has
been occasionally used, and has been as zealously
recommended as it has been vigorously rejected, is
extempore revision. A revival of this method seems
probable under the stimulus of the new Prussian
syllabus, with its remarks upon " essays in brief."
Against the use of this method there will be little
objection to urge if there be any guarantee what-
ever that its very considerable difficulties will be
invariably handled with indulgence and discretion,
ratione modoque. But in the first place we have
not the time at our disposal or the constant practice
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 111
which alone could make such methods of practical
benefit ; in the second place, the pupil is afraid of
the written question, which may refer to any part
of the whole period on which he is engaged. He
therefore undertakes those special revisions on his
own account which have been so emphatically and
effectually challenged, and with considerable reason,
in the new leaving certificate regulations for 1892.
If, however, there is time at any point for the
practice of these essays in brief, it will certainly be
found here in the Lower Fifth. Such essays should
be composed in Form, and a capable teacher will
see that the pupils thence derive such scanty
advantage as we can promise from the practice.
At this stage another problem arises. It is here
for the first time that the pupil can take notes of
the teacher's lecture, such notes having been formerly
simply dictated. The question is further extended
by the growing knowledge of shorthand. It affects
the instruction throughout these upper stages, and
this subject of revision most particularly. In the
junior Forms dictation is supported by excellent
reasons, but in the case of pupils who have reached
the Lower Fifth I have myself extended or restricted
the practice in view of the kind of revision I wished
to secure, which may be either mechanical repeti-
tion or may disregard chronology. It would be
inadvisable to dogmatize upon the subject, and
much may be left to the master's observation and
tact. One objection urged is that, when a pupil is
occupied in writing, his attention is less close, but
112 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
no great stress need be laid upon this. The lecture
may be as interesting, as lively, or as perfect as is
possible within the compass of any self-satisfied
master, but boys remain boys. At two o'clock in
the afternoon, or at eleven o'clock, or wherever the
latest perversion of pure forenoon instruction has
been introduced, it will be found during the fifth
lesson — from twelve to one — that very few pupils
are able to follow with regular or concentrated
attention even a twenty-minutes lecture. Such
note-taking is by no means so mechanical as is
asserted, and there is no reason for rejecting a
means of helping the attention when we have a lene
tormentum conducted by the pupil himself.
During this revision from lesson to lesson we shall
often meet with pupils who are able to reproduce
fluently and easily the matter of the preceding
lesson, even in the very words of the master. Great
stress is now laid upon " the reproduction of narra-
tive " throughout the lower forms, and the Prussian
syllabus of 1892 concludes its " observations on
method," as regards history, with the words : " Oral
teaching of an informal nature must be the method
specially employed in historical teaching." In 1901
we are delighted to see that this statement has been
replaced by the more modest and correct opinion
of p. 49 : " In historical teaching a pupil must be
practised as often as possible in the power of re-
peating what he has learnt in his own words and
in connected narrative." In other words, the pupil
must learn the art of expressing liimself when he
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 113
has arrytking to say. Here the historical lesson is
especially useful, for the simple reason that it is
particularly difficult for anyone to express himself
intelligibly in relating historically connected events.
For that special reason the teacher will be forced
to follow a mixed method. Difficult parts he will
have repeated by question and answer, and when a
pupil gives a narrative of the easier parts of a sub-
ject the master will constantly interrupt him to
correct an expression, to refuse a meaningless phrase,
and to quicken the intelligence by a question. The
informal lecture, as such, can never be an end in
itself, nor is there any special need for the dis-
semination of the practice, seeing that the capacity
for informal lecturing is an appalling feature of
modern society. It is to learn history, and not to
learn fluent speech, that narrative or any other
informally connected account is given by the scholar
during the revision hour.
The revision of larger sections, when the historical
matter is reproduced in new form from different
points of view, must not be too detailed, although
the Prussian syllabus gives, comparatively speaking,
abundant time to the Lower Fifth for this purpose.
Revision will be concerned, not with the detail or
the narrative, but with the fundamental facts, the
decisive motives. Similarly, the essential thread of
historical movement will be revised as a connected
whole by question and answer, with the object of
impressing what has been already understood upon
the memory. The section of the text-book under
8
114 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
treatment will be prepared at home by the pupils if
they are to gain the full benefit of this revision or to
take part in it. Such revision is a special purpose of
the text-book's existence. I will not conceal from
my younger colleagues that I consider this process
of revision the most difficult of the teacher's tasks.
His art is here more particularly displayed, and
very few can congratulate themselves upon entire
success. It is necessary that the teacher should
first have a clear view of the guiding historical idea,
and consequently that he should have arranged the
matter in accordance with this idea, though he need
not forthwith produce Ins arrangement as though
it was something of special value. We will suppose
that the section from 1740-1789 has been taught in
detail, and that the master has convinced himself
from hour to hour that individual points have been
properly seized and understood. This period can
then be revised from the standpoint of the most
important reign of the epoch — that of Frederick the
Great — and such revision will deal : —
1. With his domestic Government, its manner, its
Court life, those about him, and his personal ad-
ministration, after which we shall proceed to
(a) military administration ; (b) finance ; (c) ad-
ministration of the country, agriculture, trade, etc. ;
(d) the judicature ; (e) educational efforts, art, and
science.
2. His relations with foreign Powers : (a) Austria ;
his German policy in this connexion ; (6) Russia ;
(c) France ; (d) Great Britain ; (e) Sweden, etc.
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 115
I do not believe that in any one of the points I
have proposed there need be any material difference
between the instruction at the classical or the
modern school. I have, however, had no recent
experience of the latter schools, and do not, there-
fore, press my opinion. It has been already
observed that in the modern school great stress
must be laid upon historical teaching. Where
places in Form are determined by the addition
of the marks in the several subjects, and where the
marks carried by these subjects differ in amount,
I would make history equivalent to English, and
would take the subjects for essays more often from
the historical period than is done in the classical
school. In the revision of periods, also, many more
leading ideas will be followed than are possible in
the classical school. Of these, however, we cannot
speak to any purpose, as they depend upon the
general character of the material, upon its special
mode of treatment in the modern school, and upon
the views of the teacher entrusted with the subject.
One further point may be mentioned in conclu-
sion : the historical sense and historical knowledge
can be largely increased by home reading. Such
reading can be influenced by the teacher to some
extent, especially if he is in charge, or at any rate
knows the contents, of the school library. A warn-
ing, however, must be given that this influence can
be exaggerated. The school — that is to say, the
masters of it — must not attempt to rule any wider
area than their powers can comprehend. To speak
8 — 2
116 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
of a " wisely organized and guided home reading,
and its blessings under the influence of the school,"
is pure Utopianism, or, to put the matter plainly,
great exaggeration. The teacher may offer advice
when his advice is asked, and also when it is not,
if he thinks advisable ; otherwise, entire freedom
must be given, and historical books must not be
forced upon a pupil who would prefer to read
scientific or geographical books. The library must
contain good literature. Archenholz, Treitschke,
Hausser, etc., must be at hand, and the master can
now and then let fall a word of praise and recom-
mendation in this direction. Such words will be
remembered by the pupils whose interests have
been won to the study of history. Anything further
is unnecessary.*
At this point we should perhaps say a word of
the many subordinate stimuli to historical teaching,
such as historical pictures, representations of dress,
visits to museums or to libraries and archives. In the
previously mentioned book by J. Collard, p. 404 ff.,
* When in charge of a school library I was struck by the
preference of the elder Forms for the historical novel. Inquiries
were constantly made for Ebers, Felix Dahn, Freytag, Willibald
Alexis, and even Walter Scott. To the latter I had no objection
to urge, but such books as Dahn's Kampf um Rom aroused serious
misgivings as to whether the historical sense was not greatly
damaged by such exaggerated descriptions, apart from other losses
incurred. But history cannot be learnt from novels, though
foolish amateurism has sometimes urged the contrary, and this
is a fact which we need not be told, though we must sometimes
repeat it to our pupils.
INTERMEDIATE STAGE 117
the question is exhaustively explained in the
chapter, " Le nioyen age etudie par les monuments
de Lou vain." Something of the kind may also be
found in German writings, and people will be
always ready to advise historical excursions in
addition to those devoted to geography and natural
science. This has little or nothing to do with our
present purpose, dependent as it is entirely upon
the locality, the time, and the individuality of the
master. The study of local history, the concentra-
tion of general history upon Cologne or Dantzig,
or upon the landscape of the home, may prove
stimulating, and deserves consideration in any dis-
cussion of the problems of historical teaching. At
the same time, a warning must be uttered that too
much value should not be placed upon these matters,
as the pupiN of our secondary schools are not yet
prepared to use them correctly, but are undergoing
such preparation.
Ill
THE HIGHER STAGES
Upper Fifth, Lower Sixth, and Upper Sixth.
Thus we reach the turning-point which was so
strongly marked in 1892 by the new Prussian regula-
tions that an inclination arose to regard the Lower
Fifth, when they had completed their course as a
" point of divergence," where a decision would be
definitely taken as to which boys would or could
profit by the continuation of their studies ; it was
supposed that anyone who went through the lower
leaving certificate after eighteen months or two
years in the Lower Fifth would come to a stand-
still, and apply his energies to some form of practical
life. The expectation realized in the case of the
Realgymnasien that some good and nearly all the
bad pupils would leave from the Lower Fifth, and
that only a chosen few would remain, has not been
fulfilled, the less so as the higher leaving certificate
examination was made considerably easier at that
time. The general character of the Upper Fifth,
and consequently of the concluding stages of the
German secondary school, will remain unaltered.
118
THE HIGHER STAGES 119
The intellectual level of these upper stages will be
somewhat lower than previously, for the reason that
the whole syllabus up to and including the Lower
Fifth has been arranged with undue prominence to
lead up to that Form at which school studies were
supposed to end ; also because the supposition has
been unfulfilled that the master would be concerned
during the three following years with a smaller
number of relatively more capable pupils. It would
be advisable for the history teacher to renounce
any illusions in this direction.
According to the present organization in most
German secondary schools, the Upper Fifth begin
the second progress through the wide field of
history — a process which ought to produce the
same effects as a second reading of a Bill in Parlia-
ment. A third reading, decisive in its effects, and
concluding historical education at school, does not
exist. Attempts of the kind, general revisions, and
the like, are failures simply for want of time. A
number of those who leave school for the University,
apart from those who make a speciality of history,
will perhaps attend some historical lectures. A not
inconsiderable number will attempt to complete
their historical training by reading historical works,
as may be concluded from the fact that important
works of a general historical character enjoy a con-
siderable sale. Some progress in this respect seems
to be marked by such a fact, for instance, as the
sale of that admirable historical work, Schlosser's
Universalhistorische Ubersicht der Geschichte der alien
120 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
Welt und ihre Kultur (1826), which has never reached
a second edition, while at the present time such
excellent works as the Greek history of Max Duncker,
which is also in nine volumes, and does not exhaust
the subject, or Friedlander's descriptions of Roman
social life, have gone through five editions between
1862 and 1881, though they are no less seriously scien-
tific than the work of Schlosser. Similar examples
may be produced in considerable number. Hence the
much-abused secondary schoolmaster who teaches
history may console himself with the consideration
that modern wisdom has not so entirely renounced
antiquity and the past in favour of the present as
many assert.
We have first to consider what contribution other
subjects of instruction make towards historical train-
ing, and then to consider how these influences can be
stimulated and organized in historical instruction
proper.
Upper Fifth.
Religious instruction is highly important, and
acquires, indeed, new importance, throughout these
higher stages, and therefore in the Upper Fifth. Tins
influence is twofold : it strengthens, deepens, and
clarifies the moral and religious theories of mankind,
and his destiny, winch alone, as we have seen, enable
us with any profit to regard human affairs from a
historical standpoint. It also brings to the pupil's
notice a most valuable collection of original historical
records, even when regarded from the historical
THE HIGHER STAGES 121
standpoint alone. These two influences are exerted
in a manner corresponding with the greater develop-
ment of the pupils, in a manner that is entirely
scientific. With this subject of instruction the his-
torical teacher should feel himself in sympathy, an
attitude which is rare, even though it is by no means
difficult — at any rate, in Evangelical institutions.
In the historical seminaries of our Universities
nothing of the kind is to be expected. The time
seems past when the great historical teacher, Nie-
buhr, could honestly refer to the providence of God
when lecturing upon the sources of Roman history.*
Next to the study of divinity, that of German
literature exerts a strong influence upon historical
knowledge in its wider sense. Philip Wackernagel,
in the fourth part of his German reading-book,
asserts the necessity of providing an introduction
to the German national literature — a task incum-
bent upon the teaching given from the First Form
to the Sixth, and very simple when thus formulated,
though in reality a very complex and comprehensive
task. Historical influences thus become operative,
and it is clear that their strength may be great when
the traditional practice is followed, which is also
observed in the new Prussian and Saxon schemes,
of reading some Middle High German in the Upper
Fifth, and thus going deep into the past of our
nationality. The existing Prussian syllabus does not
lay down any special course of German literature
for the upper Forms. It is obvious that the Upper
* Vortesungen iiber rumische GeschicMe, Ed. Isler, I. 75.
122 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
Fifth is the right place for Middle High German.
Its introduction here is justified by the fact that no
history or literature in the true sense is studied in the
upper stages, but that a historical order is generally
observed throughout the literary studies. This his-
torical influence also belongs to language, when
the pupil learns to know the Nibelungen, Kudrun,
Walter, etc., from the language they spoke, not from
translations. The fact is so entirely obvious that
it has been invariably recognized except in one
official scheme (1882-1892), which, as everybody
knows, was ruined by the co-operation of " too many
cooks." The Prussian syllabus of 1892, while per-
mitting the study of Homer in the original text,
prohibited the reading of the Nibelungen in the
primitive German, or the use of this German as the
foundation of instruction. Here we have an incon-
sistency that is practically repeated in the new
syllabus. At the present time German is made
" the central point of school instruction ;" at the
present time, also, the forces of the science of
phonetics are being called in to secure the utmost
perfection in the study of French ; yet, strangely
enough, our German youth, consisting chiefly of the
sons of the upper classes, who will claim to take
their place in those classes in the future, are allowed
to secure only the most superficial acquaintance with
their own language in its earlier stages : "Introduc-
tion to the Nibelungenlied, with extracts from the
original text, which are to be read and explained
by the master." For our historical point of view
THE HIGHER STAGES 123
it becomes obvious that the pupils of our schools
and of other institutions of equal value, though dis-
similar organization, do not merely listen to the
master's explanation, but read the text for them-
selves, and secure some close acquaintance with it.
We hold no brief on behalf of Middle High German
or Old High German ; we are unable to countenance
the terminology which speaks of the second classical
period in our national literature — a phrase, we
believe, originating with Vilmar. But some per-
sonal acquaintance with the old and simple German
language we do unconditionally require for all our
higher schools — for the modern high school, where
no Latin is learnt, as well as for the classical school.
Such study is indispensable as introductory to the
first-hand records of the historical life of our people.
More than this we do not ask. Breadth of view and
deeper understanding of human life, whether con-
temporary or historical, may be gained by the con-
tinuation or resumption of Schiller's and Goethe's
Gedankenlyrik. Thus, here also there is no immediate
connexion between the two subjects — German litera-
ture and German history. In essay-writing, how-
ever, the pupil may well find occasion to use the
material he has gathered from his history lessons.
French comes but little into connexion with the
historical instruction, though historical French prose
is often read to excellent purpose in the Upper Sixth
— for instance, the Egyptian campaign of Bonaparte
in the narrative of Thiers, which has many times
been edited for school purposes. Here we have a
124 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
simple means of introducing the pupil to the strange
world of modern Orientalism, and to European
politics as a whole. Of these subjects he would
otherwise know nothing, and yet they are most
admirably calculated to extend his line of vision.
Apart from such cases as this, French in secondary
schools is valuable chiefly for itself. In the classical
schools it is especially valuable as providing the
pupil with a means for reading French works dealing
with the special subject winch he may choose to
pursue at the University or in after-life. The study
of English, which begins in this Form, though in a
classical school a choice is allowed, subserves the
same practical purpose, though it must not be for-
gotten that the learning of every new language opens
a new horizon ; and the fact is also true of Hebrew,
which some few pupils begin at this stage.
As regards Latin and Greek, the reading of his-
torical records proceeds for the immediate purpose
of linguistic practice, and the Prussian syllabus of
1882 went so far as to appoint for reading " Livy
and Sallust, with special reference to their history."
We do not quite understand what ideas underlie
this regulation, winch has often been repeated in
similar terms, or whether similar ideas inspired the
paragraph of the syllabus of 1901, p. 31 : " A point
of view hitherto constantly neglected, and yet im-
portant for the interaction of related studies, is
the possibility of narrowing the connexion between
the reading of Latin prose authors and the histori-
cal teaching of a Form." For our own part, we
THE HIGHER STAGES 125
desire no special consideration for historical teach-
ing. It may, indeed, be said that the reading of the
first book of Livy, with its popular traditions related
in sympathetic and poetic language, would enable
the history teacher to dismiss the Roman Kings very
shortly, though this is a mode of procedure necessary
in any case. It would, however, be entirely erroneous
to treat such a subject as the second Punic War more
summarily in the history lesson merely because the
pupil had read some part of it in his Livy. When
we say that to read the classical historians is to read
historical sources, we imply that such close study of
the text as is necessary for translation brings the
reader back to the past as represented by these
authors, and this is a possibility of very rare occur-
rence in historical teaching proper, owing simply to
want of time, nor can it ever be so intensive. It is
also highly important that when the pupil reads
Csesar, Xenophon, Thiers, Macaulay, Livy, and
Sallust, he should by degrees secure, and be able
to reproduce, some conception of the different kinds
of history. The matter that is read is, however, of
greater importance. All reading of Greek and Latin
literature in the Upper Fifth stimulates historical
study for the simple reason that it brings us into a
definitely historical environment and atmosphere.
The fact is especially true of Cicero's speeches, which-
ever of them may be assumed as generally read in
this Form. They introduce the reader to critical
points in the life of a great statesman, as in the
speeches against Catiline. Such a speech as the Pro
126 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
Roscio Afnerino displays the conditions of Italian
agriculture and of Italian country towns in the first
century B.C., and thus enables us to understand, and,
what is still better for the youthful historian, to
realize how individual happiness or misfortune may
be affected by great historical events and changes.
The fact is naturally no less true of the Greek
authors — the Hellenica or the Memorabilia or the
selected speeches of Lysias. Everywhere there is
a historical background, and we might almost say
that the speech is more valuable to us in proportion
as the importance of the person concerned diminishes,
whether it be Sextus Roscius, or Agoratus, or the
Invalid of the twenty-fourth oration of Lysias. As
a stimulus to the true historical sense it is most
desirable that the pupil should understand that
history is not merely the history of the upper ten
thousand, but the history of the hundred thousand
or the million — in short, of the whole nation. We
have attempted elsewhere* to reconstruct the
history of a slave in Asia Minor at the time of the
Peloponnesian War on the basis of a phrase in the
ninth book of Xenophon's Anabasis. We would
undertake to sketch a series of such portraits of the
lower classes, drawn from classical literature from
the time of Homer to Horace or the younger Pliny.
Every teacher who approaches the subject from this
point of view can discover an infinite number of
similar examples which provide a very simple and
yet a very effective means of making the study
* Pro domo, p. 136 ff.
THE HIGHER STAGES 127
interesting, or, to use the proper term, beneficial —
beneficial, that is, in the sense of the truly historical
phrase, Nihil humani a me alienum puto. It is possible
in the Third and Fourth Forms, and much more so in
the Upper Fifth and Sixth, at which point we shall
have to recur to the subject when we mention Horace.
Finally, as regards geography, it will be assigned,
like mathematics, to the upper branches of physics,
the remaining parts of the subject being known as
applied geography, and thus directly entering the
scheme of historical instruction. Tins is not the
idea of the Prussian syllabus or of the Utopian
arrangement, which requires for the upper stages at
least six revisions of geography in every half-year,
and also history " to the present time," for the
Sixth Form, " other geographical revision to be
undertaken as may be required." We shall not
interpret these phrases as implying formal geo-
graphical revision. Whenever history is taught,
the master should state accurately the locality of
the events discussed, and thus secure that these
localities, rivers, mountains, and towns are not mere
collocations of letters, as they were in the days of
my youth, and as they probably still are in many
cases. Natural as this connexion between geography
and history is, every one of experience knows that
it has been little practised, and has, therefore, pro-
duced little result ; yet it is a method which, when
conjoined with accurate dating — another constantly
neglected factor — can alone give that precision and
certainty which historical lectures require.
128 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
The history instruction proper in the upper stage
— the second perusal of the great book of history —
falls within a three-years course of three lessons a
week. The first year in the Upper Fifth is naturally
given to ancient history, Greek and Roman history
to the fall of the West Roman Empire.
We have seen that ancient history for two lessons
a week was previously assigned to two Forms —
Greek to the Lower Fifth, and Roman to the Upper
Fifth — an arrangement which made it possible to
find some time for the early history of the East.
This two-years course of ancient history was highly
beneficial at this particular stage, as arranged by
the old Prussian syllabus, and, as we have men-
tioned, we can well understand the regret which
many feel, and which we share, for that syllabus.
The study of ancient hi story and of classical litera-
ture proved beneficial to either branch. There was
a comparatively full and accurate knowledge of
history within definite limits, while historical ideas
applicable to any other period were gained. More-
over, a competent teacher could make the most
admirable use of this subject-matter in the Sixth
Form by discussions upon essays, treatment from
special standpoints, etc. As things are, however,
we cannot help ourselves, and complaint is useless.*
We must, therefore, remodel our organization.
* We can understand the indignation of those monomaniacs
among us who wish to restore the classical school in its old
purity, including Latin composition, and are desirous to unite
for the purpose of recapturing, on behalf of the classical school,
THE HIGHER STAGES 129
In the first place, we must gain an accurate com-
prehension of the historical matter for study. Un-
fortunately, our text-books are by no means adequate
for this purpose, and it is well known that the pre-
mature reforms in Prussia have thrown text-books
into so chaotic a condition that it will be long before
order is secured — we mean real order, and not pro-
gramme arrangement. The new text-books have
been manufactured somewhat too hastily to inspire
us with confidence, while the older text-books, such
the positions that have been lost. We doubt the correctness of
this point of view. History as such would not be greatly bene-
fited even if the old conditions were restored. It would be
necessary to secure that the old amount of time should once
more be given to the study of Latin and Greek. This is the
weakest point of the new regulations, and it is already obvious
that the precipitous descent upon which we have entered cannot
be continued. It may be true that nine years' study of the
Latin and Greek languages and antiquities forms the backbone
of classical school education ; in that case the backbone should
be strengthened, and it is ridiculous to reduce the time to seven
hours in the Third and Fourth, and to six hours in the Fifth and
Sixth. On the other hand, the proposition may be false ; in that
case some other object of study should be made the backbone
and should be provided with an adequate number of hours.
But no other study has as yet been found. This note is repeated
from our first edition (1895); since that date there has been
an improvement, and the Third and Fourth Forms have been
given eight hours for Latin, while the Fifth and Sixth have
seven. If the eight hours of Latin were restored to the Lower
Fifth in Prussia, this being the Form where the pupil begins to
enjoy the reading of Latin, we should be entirely satisfied with
the present syllabus for the Upper Fifth, considered from the
point of view of the history teacher.
9
130 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
as that of Herbst, are attempting to meet necessities
by reducing their length. But no editorial skill can
entirely overcome the original arrangement. Hence,
a solution of the difficulty has been found in some
places which is by no means to be rejected. The
Third-Form books, which were intended for one year,
are brought out again. They, at any rate, give the
master necessary facts, and these are supplemented
and remodelled as far as this task is possible from
the standpoint of higher instruction. In any case,
one caution must be given that is even more neces-
sary than it was in dealing with the Third Form,
where the danger is obvious — detailed treatment
must be avoided of periods for which we are more
or less reduced to hypotheses. For a long time it
seems to have been fashionable to treat in full
detail such subjects as the earlier periods of Roman
history, the struggle of the classes with full legisla-
tive details, the struggles with the Italici in the
three Samnite Wars, etc. It will, however, be
possible to treat the period before Solon and the
first period of Roman history until the struggle with
Carthage even more briefly than in teaching middle
or lower Forms ; while the necessity of working
through the period in a scanty allowance of time
will prove a sufficiently strong influence — a /3/ato?
hthdaKokoi, as Thucydides said of war — obliging the
master to renounce his special hobbies. Among
these the artistic hobby is prominent at this moment
— the archaeological interest which now seems
dominant among our leading classes, and demands
THE HIGHER STAGES 131
with some vigour the numerous and splendid objects
and illustrations required for this purpose. This is
one of the many excellent things that depend
entirely upon favourable circumstances — the number
of the pupils, the personality of the master, the
endowment of the school, etc. — and upon which
it is thus impossible to dogmatize from the educa-
tional point of view. Some thoughtful observations
were made upon the point in 1892 at the first general
meeting of the Bavarian Secondary Schoolmasters'
Union by Rector Lechner, of Nuremberg : " How
far can the plastic arts of antiquity be made a subject
of school instruction ?" (Freising, 1892). Professor
Ludwig von Sybel has recently referred to the point
in Marburg (1904). Upon the whole, we should
advise teachers not to overestimate the apprecia-
tion of an Upper-Fifth Form for artistic beauty.
At this point perhaps we should say a word upon
the use of these so-called objective methods, winch
in certain cases seem likely to degenerate into actual
picture- worship. We remember a very true saying
of Goethe preserved in the life of General Friedrich
von Gagern by Heinrich von Gagern : "I hate
luxury, for it destroys imagination." In our own
subject especially, an abuse of these objective
methods tends to stunt the development of that
imagination which is most important in historical
teaching. Considerable concentration is required
to comprehend historical facts, and pictures may
easily become a distraction, as the immature mind
seizes, not the whole, but some individual point by
9—2
132 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
which it is attracted, or which it abstracts for itself.
In home reading the case is somewhat different,
though if a historical book is intended to have an
educative effect its illustrations must keep a strictly
historical character, and not be mere products of
the artist's imagination. In the reading, too, of
classical texts we can admit the method to a certain
extent ; but while teaching we object to the in-
sertion of historical portraits or anything of the
kind in school texts at this or any other stage.
Historical instruction has a great burden to bear,
and obviously contains within itself the influ-
ences which have stimulated artistic progress or
civilization ; but it cannot at the same time become
a history of art or civilization without losing all
definition and overflowing all its bounds.
At this point, however — and we are dealing with
boys of sixteen or seventeen years of age — we may
or must use the means of increasing the scanty time
at our disposal, even though it is a means not entirely
within our powers or so wholly subject to our will as
instruction proper. We refer to the question of home
reading. When the history teacher is confronted by
an enormous mass of matter for treatment within a
scanty period of time it is not unreasonable that he
should ask his boys to read a good book of Greek or
Roman history for themselves at home. Here we may
assert emphatically that the business of the classical
school is to teach the pupils to work for themselves ;
to teach the boy to grapple with his own tasks,
which will include the capacity of reading an intel-
THE HIGHER STAGES 133
ligible book upon some subject in connexion with
his school-work. This stimulus to historical reading
seems to us to be specially important in the case of
the upper pupils in our modern schools, as many of
them may thereby gain an intellectual interest and
a desire for further culture lasting through life.
Among the many good things which a teacher can
do quietly, without writing treatises or articles upon
the subject in educational papers, is this work of
inspiring some part of his pupils with an enduring
taste for good historical reading.
As regards lecturing to the Form, we think that
there will be no material difference between the
mode of treatment employed in the classical school
and in the corresponding classes of the modern
school or modern high school. In the case of the
classical school the earlier and continued reading of
historical sources will direct the teaching into certain
lines. It may, for instance, be the political history
that becomes prominent. While this fact facilitates
teaching from one point of view, it increases diffi-
culties from another. On the one hand, this period
of history is already known to the classical school
pupils to some extent — better, in fact, than any
other — for the reason that they have not merely
heard of the country and the period when these
things happened, but have to some extent them-
selves lived in that country and that time ; on the
other hand, a difficulty arises because the teacher
is constantly tempted to expatiate upon this subject,
with which he also is more familiar. To the pupils
134 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
of the modern school Greek and Roman history
should be treated as portions of the world's history,
of immense interest and importance as being the
foundation of that Western culture which is based
on freedom, but no attempt should be made to
inspire them with that special interest which
naturally presupposes such an examination of first-
hand authorities as only the classical scholar can
make. On this subject much has been said con-
cerning the reading or reading aloud of classical
translations of Homer, Sophocles, and Virgil. We
cannot speak from experience, but are strongly
inclined to doubt the effectiveness of such reading.
At this higher stage, and therefore throughout
the Upper-Fifth course, the preparation of his lessons
will make considerable demands upon the teacher,
or, rather, he should make considerable demands
upon his own powers. We do not refer to the so-
called informal lecture of which we have previously
treated, and which is here assumed throughout the
upper-school teaching. Suppose, for instance, that
the history teacher has to deal with a difficult and
complicated subject, not easy of exposition — for
example, the circumstances which ended in the
reforms of the Gracchi or in the French Revolution ;
suppose, again, that he wished to speak for thirty
or forty minutes with nothing to guide or support
his memory, he is reduced either to simply para-
phrasing the text-book or is asked to perform a feat
impossible to such famous teachers of history as
Ranke, von Sybel, Fr. Raumer, and Max Duncker.
THE HIGHER STAGES 135
Yet it is easier to deliver an informal University
lecture with a manuscript open before one than to
do the same thing before the Fifth Form of a classical
or modern school. The University professor has
more time for undisturbed preparation. He exists
for this purpose, and for no other, and can speak
as he would to his equals in intellect, whereas the
schoolmaster must accommodate his lecture to
immature minds. The latter, therefore, must follow
the counsel of Daedalus, flying neither too high nor
too low, avoiding both the clouds and the water —
a matter more easily said than done. Where the
professor is able to presuppose ideas, the master is
obliged to analyze these ideas, regardless of apparent
pedantry. He must commit the great mistake,
when regarded from the highest historical stand-
point, of repeating himself ; must go over matters
of importance two or three times in different lan-
guage and with different expressions. We would
thus advise the teacher who is undertaking this
instruction for the first time to analyze for himself
one good book (not six), written in not too lofty
or too detailed a style. During the lesson he can
easily have recourse to his manuscript, from which
help he will be able to emancipate himself as he
gains confidence. The objection that the use of a
manuscript will make a bad impression upon the
pupils or diminish the " authority " of the teacher
is sheer nonsense. The boy of sixteen or seventeen
is quite capable of realizing the industry and work
of his master, and the teacher's authority is dimin-
136 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
ished, not by industry, even when misapplied, but
rather by glib-tongued obscurity. It must thus be
remembered that the historical lecture is a more
difficult matter than any other kind of teaching,
and the beginner should not attack it with over-
confidence. Should the master be left in charge
of this form of instruction for any length of time,
his knowledge and his analysis will gradually be
increased from good and first-hand sources of in-
formation, and he will identify himself more with
that world into which he is to introduce his pupils.
This, indeed, is the true means of vivifying his-
torical lectures, that the teacher should identify
himself with the past, whether it be the Persian
War, the Punic War, the Civil Wars, or the Imperial
Period. He must live among the men of the age
of which he treats. It is an object that many do
not seek, and that not all who seek find. Nowhere,
we would add, is this spirit of the past reproduced
with greater strength and freshness than in Niebuhr's
lectures upon ancient history, which should be
studied by every teacher of ancient history for their
style and general character, even if it be granted
that in certain respects they are out of date, or that
the personal view is too prominent in such cases
as his description of Alexander the Great, when he
represents Demosthenes as a saint and poor Isocrates
as an old idiot. The great teacher threw his whole
powers into these lectures. Apart from this, we
can but repeat our advice not to read too much of
what has been written about historical teaching,
THE HIGHER STAGES 137
but to read the subject-matter of it, and to study
the history of the past. It is, indeed, difficult to
master this material which is truly infinite, and so
to comprehend it that it may really reproduce the
past while restraining it within the limits dictated
by our scanty lessons. It is no less easy to talk
upon the subject, to propose theories of teaching
and repeat catch-words upon its effects, and espe-
cially upon its ethical influences.
Here, as in every stage, it is obvious that regular
revision or recapitulation of the previous lesson is
absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, but little
time will remain from the one year's course in the
Upper Fifth for the general revision of each section
when it has been worked through — the revision,
that is, of the three or four periods into which Greek
and Roman history can be divided. We must con-
sole ourselves with the somewhat inadequate com-
fort of the fact that the whole course of ancient
history is a repetition or revision, a deepening or
extension of the knowledge of ancient history
acquired from the First Form to the Lower Fifth,
acquired in some cases by private reading, and
brought into connexion by the elementary course
pursued in the Third Form. We are thus given some
3 x 40= 120 history lessons, and for these revisions
we can reserve at most two lessons for each section
— that is, sixteen altogether. Hence, there will be
no time left for the elaboration of constitutional
theory and the like, nor is this latter necessary.
Enough has been done if the most important facts
138 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
of a period are held in connexion from a fresh point
of view, and are remodelled with the object of
proving whether they have been actually understood
by the majority of the pupils. For instance, take
the period of Roman history from 264 to 133 B.C.
In external history, name the most important battles
of these one hundred and thirty-one years, and
their dates in chronological order : Mylse, Eknomus,
Panormus, the iEgatian Islands, Telamon, Ticinus,
Trebia, Trasimene, Cannae, Sena, Zama, Cynosce-
phalae, Magnesia, Pydna, the destruction of the three
cities, Corinth, Carthage, and Numantia ; then the
extent of the Roman power in 241, 228, 218, 201, 197,
190, 168, 133 B.C. Then consider the development of
home politics, the most important statesmen of this
time, and their party position or other character-
istics : Regulus, Flaminius, Fabius, Terentius Varro
and ^Emilius Paulus, P. Cornelius Scipio and Cato,
Flamininus, yEmilius Paulus, etc. Much seems to
have been done in this direction of late with the
new method of German essays in brief, which educa-
tional reformers have urged upon the teaching pro-
fession, and with which, we fear, many fruitless ex-
periments must have been made at the outset. We
cannot promise much advantage to historical in-
struction from this method ; at the same time,
instead of requiring oral revision of a section, the
master may set a question or several questions from
this period to be written out in a straightforward
manner, and can discover from the answers how
much actual fact has been remembered, what
THE HIGHER STAGES 139
capacity exists for using known facts, and how
far his pupils are able to express themselves intel-
ligibly upon historical subjects. This has always
been a possible method under any conditions, apart
from the fact that in the Sixth Form subjects for
Latin themes have been constantly drawn from
ancient history, and have proved a very effective
means of elaborating certain important questions
when the subjects have been handled with due dis-
cretion. This point, however, brings us to the
question of history-teaching in the Sixth Form.
Sixth Form.
At the meeting of historical teachers at Leipsic
in 1894* a motion was adopted to the effect that
the highest stage of secondary instruction should
be occupied with modern, especially with German
history, in preference to the study of ancient history.
It was scarcely necessary to emphasize the fact, for
opinion seems fairly agreed that the two last years
of a secondary school course should be devoted to
European history from a.d. 476 ; that in them the
larger part of the attention should be given to
'modern' history — that is, history from 1517 on-
wards ; and that time should also be found for the
period from 1815 to 1871, which the events of 1871
made productive. It was a representative of strict
humanism in the Berlin Conference of 1873 who
* Berickt iiber die zweite Versammlung deutscher Historiker,
Leipsic, 1894.
140 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
gave emphatic expression for the first time, as far
as we know, to this somewhat obvious truth. The
champions of classical school-teaching have been
unjustly reproached with the desire to throw modern
history into the background in favour of ancient.
Such attempts have been purely sporadic. An
instance between 1860 and 1870 was the zeal with
which Karl Peter championed the theory that
ancient history should form the main subject of
historical teaching in the Sixth Form. Representa-
tives of the classical schools have always rejected
this idea, with reference to the principles repeated
in the above-mentioned motion at Leipsic, that
" the deeper view of ancient history is essentially
to be derived from the reading of the classics " — in
other words, that the final possibility of realizing
antiquity at the secondary school should be not
merely an object, but the chief object, of Sixth-Form
instruction — an assertion which was formerly better
justified than now.
We must again return to those side influences
which can guide the formation of the historical
sense at this stage, but we have first to point out
that in the case of many pupils true scientific in-
terest is here keen, though not always definite.
Some will show an eager interest in everything
worth knowing that comes within their range ;
others will display a special bias in one direction,
will study mathematics with zeal and intelligence,
be careless of linguistic interest, and practically im-
penetrable to historical influence. In these and
THE HIGHER STAGES 141
other ways specialist leanings become visible. There
are also other cases where a very definite leaning
is displayed to the subject which is to be a speciality
for life, but where at the same time interest, or at
any rate conscientious industry, is devoted to other
subjects, and these are precisely the pupils who will
bring forth fruit an hundredfold upon the field of
the secondary school. It is, however, very natural
that the pupil should himself regard the various
sciences which he studies as more or less mutually
independent. Their reaction and interaction natur-
ally does not cease, and in a sense they become
more intensive than before ; but these mutual influ-
ences are less easily regulated in view of the growing
independence of the pupil, and cannot be guided
by the fictitious principles of concentration. It is
imposssible to demand universal perfection in every
subject from boys of seventeen and eighteen, for
the reason that at this age the pupil shows a repug-
nance to what may be called partisan teaching, and
this fact must be borne in mind in considering our
own teaching.
Hence our questions must be formulated in some-
what different terms than in the previous stages.
We ask what effect the different subjects of study
have upon the pupil's education, and how this
general educative process affects or is affected by
historical teaching ? We ask again, What is the
general product, what is the minimum and maximum
product, of this teaching in the secondary school ?
It is obvious that the different subjects of study
142 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
necessarily come in contact with historical instruc-
tion, but with certain plain differences. Contact
with mathematics and natural science is, of course,
very slight, although far-sighted teachers will find
an opportunity in either case to refer to the ideas
existing in the ancient world upon the great problems
of science which we now know by the names of
Greek derivations as mathematics, physics, the
cosmos, etc. The teacher will show how discovery
has advanced very gradually and by no means
directly, and how all knowledge is connected by a
universal tie.* An opportunity will be found to
demonstrate the fact, which modern barbarism
seems haughtily to reject, that natural science has
made its vast advance and secured its immense
influence upon human life merely because numbers
of disinterested investigators worked without thanks
and profit for the mere sake of knowledge, and were
often forced to struggle with prejudice and ob-
scurantism. It will not be out of place to refer
briefly to the manner in which astronomy developed
from astrology and the lofty science of chemistry
from the search for the philosopher's stone, and to
mention the names which forwarded this develop-
ment. I refer to these facts because I have known
grown-up youths among the philologists and mathe-
* Upon this point the Greek reading book of Wilamowitz is
important, and will doubtless produce its effect, not only directly
upon the secondary school, but also upon earnest students both
at the University and in the training colleges among the rising
generation of teachers.
THE HIGHER STAGES 143
maticians of my acquaintance who could not entirely
refrain from casting contemptuous glances at the
other sciences, without realizing how contemptible
they were making themselves. Whether at the
University or at the secondary school, there must
be mutual respect between the sciences. To borrow
a striking instance used by a clever philologist, a
man who writes or can write a dissertation of some
hundred pages upon the two-celled schizomycetes
should respect as himself another who can write a
similar treatise upon a Greek word of two letters,
av. The common duty of all teachers united in one
corporation is to implant a respect for knowledge
for its own sake at classical or at modern schools,
and it is hence that every science derives its nobility
and its sanctity. Of practical use in the common
sense of the word to the majority of men in after-
life is neither the knowledge of the Pythagorean
formula nor the rules for constructing conditional
sentences in Greek, nor the information that Charles
the Great ruled from a.d. 768 to 814.
As we have already observed, German literature
has been recently and specially claimed in the
upper stages as the central point of the general
instruction given in our secondary schools, while
the German essay is to be regarded as the strongest
proof of intellectual maturity. The claim has always
been justified so far as it is just, and has only been
obscured at times by incompetent workmen, as may
happen to any other truth. The task of the teacher
of German has, by degrees, become many-sided, and
144 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
bhe success of his teaching depends more than in
any other subject upon his own individuality. In
the interest of our own subject, paradoxical as it
may sound, we welcome the step which has rejected
the sonorous term " literary history," and now no
longer discusses developments, schools of poetry,
etc., but makes the pupil read the poems and the
poetry for himself. A habit is thus acquired of
reading a number of classical works, tragedies, and
the like, and it is to be hoped that the pupil is
accordingly stimulated to supplement his school
literature by home reading. By our position as
history teachers, occupied with a certain part of
youthful education, we are also obliged to pay
attention to the treatment of other school subjects.
We must accordingly state that too much analysis,
both of style and matter, seems at the present
moment to be fashionable in literature lessons. The
technique of the drama is analyzed, leading figures
and their contrasts, the main plot and the counter-
plot, the rise and fall of the action, etc. These
explanations are actually supported by the use of
geometrical figures, and even the preaching of the
Capuchin monk in WaUenstein is now set forth
with the aid of the Hebrew alphabet. All this
seems to us to divert attention from that which
Goethe's Iphigenie or Schiller's WaUenstein should
really be to the young scholar. The great and
noble thoughts, the interest of human destiny, the
development of character, the dominating genius in
conflict with eternal opposition overthrown because
THE HIGHER STAGES 145
he stains his lofty task by ambition, the purity
of the woman who breaks the dreadful curse upon
a family and brings morality to a barbarous people
— in short, all the nobility of these poems should,
we think, be brought home to the youthful hearer
or reader by personal sympathy and appreciation.
We are concerned little with the artistic form and
the technique of the drama, but much with its
material content and the scope of its ideas, from
which we can expect an influence beneficial upon
the historical sense, and indirectly upon historical
learning. It is unnecessary to labour the point.
Anyone who has fully appreciated the words in
Wallenstein —
" When the heart
Comes not unscathed from out the strife of duty," etc.
and the conditions and frame of mind in which
these words were spoken, has understood an event
no less historical than the conversion of Henry IV.
of France in 1593. In every case, though perhaps
not so immediately as in reading Schiller's Maria
Stuart, the Sixth-Form boy will feel that he is re-
ceiving an education in history, and that every
immediate presentation of fact, including that given
by immortal poetry, will deepen his knowledge of
the past. At the same time, if he proceeds to read
our great poems from a different point of view than
that of pure history, he will gain a deeper know-
ledge of the tragical elements in historical events,
such as the condemnation of John Huss by a
reforming council. There is yet another external
10
146 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
point in close connexion with the former. The
capacity to reproduce somewhat complicated his-
torical events in educated language, reproduction
implying something more than mere repetition, is
but little developed, even at this stage. The defi-
ciency is only natural, for the task is very difficult.
The German literature lesson, therefore, sharpens
and improves the pupil's linguistic power, and en-
riches his historical vocabulary.
The same facts are true mutatis mutandis, for the
modern schools. The special duty and, we may
add, the special pleasure of the master who is in
charge of the literary studies of a modern Sixth
chiefly consists in the fact that he can give his
pupils some compensation for the initial advantages
which the classical schoolboy enjoys, and the same
facts are true of the religious instruction.
To this latter subject we need add very little to
the observations already made at the different stages,
and especially in dealing with the Upper Fifth. I
can only speak of the Protestant divinity teaching.
Catholic teaching, so far as my experience has gone,
appears chiefly directed to providing the pupils with
a simple system of apologetics, and thus cannot
have the effect that we here desire, though I am far
from pronouncing any general criticism of the system.
The periods of divinity set down for Sixth-Form study
in every German State, and not in Prussia alone,
comprise great historical periods of Church history
— the history of the first three centuries, the most
important movements in medieval Church history,
the history of the Reformation, the most important
THE HIGHER STAGES 147
tendencies of the post-Reformation period ; hence,
from the very nature of the subject, this teaching
can effectively supplement and deepen the historical
instruction. The important point is, however, not
so much the acquisition of this knowledge or its
wider outlook, but the fact that this instruction
should teach the young man to regard himself as a
lively member of a corporation, historical in the
deepest sense, a member of the Christian Church
and of the community of Christ, which reaches back
for centuries, and points the way for centuries to
come. We assumed at the outset that historical
comprehension, and therefore historical training,
was only possible when the conception of humanity
as an ethical whole had been grasped, this con-
ception implying an idea and consciousness of God
as its necessary correlative. This principle now
becomes of greater importance in so far as the seeds
already sown in the First and Second Forms have
been watered and have grown. Thus much, at least,
should have been secured in every case by religious
instruction, that the idea of the kingdom of God has
become a reality. " This man is not far from the
kingdom of God," says Jesus of one of the scribes who
asked the supreme law of action ; but mere knowledge
of the kingdom does not imply membership. To
express the matter in secular terms, religious instruc-
tion provides the pupils of the upper Forms with a
philosophy of history and with something that
supplies a philosophic impulse or a philosophic
leaven to their historical knowledge.
10—2
148 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
This, however, is not enough for life, and his-
torical or religious knowledge will only bring forth
dead fruit unless it can affect the action of man-
kind. Of these facts we are well aware, as we are
of the special mission of religious instruction in this
respect. The divinity lesson has only fulfilled its
purpose if the pupils, few or many, have not merely
learnt, for instance, the circumstances which pro-
duced the Augsburg Confession of Faith, but have
also realized in heart and intellect and will that
God requires from all who regard this confession as
their creed the same courage as the men of that
blessed period displayed, and which the men of our
own time will also need in their conflict with lies
and half lies.
As regards linguistic study, whether of ancient
or modern languages, it is obvious that the more
easily the Sixth-Form boy can read a foreign lan-
guage, the more rapidly will his historical powers
be developed by such reading ; while everything
that diminishes this facility, whether it be gram-
matical pedantry or the dilettantism more fashion-
able at this moment, will manifest its evil effects
at this point in particular. Here we must speak of
the so-called source-books which are in existence.
These were at first compiled, and Math good
reason, for the purposes of ancient history, but the
idea has also been applied to medieval and modern
history. We have always feared that the method
might introduce an unnecessary distraction into the
organization of historical teaching, and we doubt if
THE HIGHER STAGES 149
the experiment has been successful where it has been
tried ; but as we have no time for such luxuries, it
is scarcely necessary to speak further upon the
matter. The only study that can really be called
the reading of sources is the regular reading of the
classical texts. The classical authors are historical
sources at every stage of school-life, and more than
ever at this highest stage. Historians such as Livy,
Sallust, Tacitus, Xenophon, Thucydides, either give
us records of a past which was to them a present,
and in any case was vivid to them as it can never
be to us, or they reflect the spirit, the intellectual
and moral views of their time as do the poets Homer,
Sophocles, and Horace ; or if they be orators like
Cicero, or Demosthenes they introduce us to great
affairs of State or private life. To read the first
Philippic with, a class and to make it clear to them,
means to explain the situation of the political world
as it was about the time of the birth of Alexander
the Great. In tins atmosphere the pupil lives, and
its historical interest and standpoint provide us with
a magician's wand by which we can change to gold
all that comes in connexion with this study. Take,
for instance, the Philip of Isocrates — a work of very
moderate literary value, like all productions of that
limited mind. For us and for boys of eighteen it
forms an invaluable historical document, intro-
ductory to the political ideas and the intellectual
movements existing at the outset of the monarchical
Macedonian or Hellenistic age. This interest can
never be entirely extinguished by the most incom-
150 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
petcnt teaching, wliile it can become extraordinarily
efficacious in the hands of a teacher who has any-
feeling for history. If we take an average case, and
consider a document that is not specially calculated
to produce the effect which we desire, take a Form
of boys from seventeen to twenty years of age who
have read throughout a winter the fourth or fifth
Verrine oration. They have gained a clear concep-
tion of the life of a Roman provincial population in
the first century B.C., and can realize for themselves
the locality and the age. This realizing a piece of
the past as a present by means of its records is just
what history, historical study, and historical know-
ledge mean. This is neither paradoxical nor new,
but is immediately enlightening. Yet it is notorious
that educational methods very often miss this
obvious point. It may even be asserted that failure
to recognize this plain truth and the unhistorical
treatment of the classical languages and their litera-
ture is to blame for the evil influences which threaten
to shatter the whole of our secondary educational
system. To prove our point, and to show what we
mean when we say that classical literature in our
schools is really the reading of historical sources,
we need only refer to Horace. No classical author
is more valuable to the historian than this little
book. The odes, the satires, the epistles, and the
epodes everywhere provide numberless pictures from
the daily life of Rome, the life, too, of the common
people, and not merely of the upper ten thousand.
Horace shows us the secondary school of the Italian
THE HIGHER STAGES 151
provincial town, the auditorium of the magister at
Rome, university life at Athens, and the street life
of the capital. We see the crier Mena and the
petit peuple in their short sleeves, the popellus
tunicatus, every order and profession of society —
clerks and officers, estate agents, surly scholars,
princes of the imperial house, needy philosophers
and poetasters, political, legal, and social life,
literary tendencies and cliques — these pass before
our eyes, and are depicted by a keen observer, born
in freedom, educated in a Grseco-Roman corner of
Italy, personally connected with the great political
revolution, and brought by his own talents, tact,
and good fortune into immediate connexion with the
rulers and leaders of the nation. All this can be
learnt from Horace, and can be learnt by the school-
boy whose interests and sympathies have not been
blunted. It is not difficult, and requires no special
art, thus to study Horace with a Form. The teacher
is not asked to sacrifice any essential interests or
special hobby of his own, though he must abandon
attempts to enlarge upon the metrical system of the
odes or attempts to classify their form. Well for
Mm and for his pupils if he can succeed in the effort.
At this point we should like to say a word in
passing upon a subject which is commonly regarded
as unconnected with that historical training which
gives the classical school its true individuality. We
refer to translation from German into the classical
languages. It is a practice in little favour with that
dilettantism which objects to serious work and is
152 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
too often a leading influence in questions of school
policy. We can hardly suppose that the short-
sighted persons who follow this fashion can have
any idea of the value of the practice. Translation
into the ancient languages avoids that superficiality
which seems to characterize its opponents by forcing
the translator to think in the spirit of the men who
gave expression to their thoughts two thousand
years ago by means of a fundamentally different
language, and holding the opinions of another age.
To any linguistic expert it is obvious that transla-
tion from the mother-tongue into a foreign language
implies a far closer acquaintance with the latter
than the reverse process, and that the language of a
nation during a definite period preserves the mental
attitude of the nation and of the time, and is thus
far a subject of study essentially historical. The
fact is true even in schools, and when a boy is
obliged to consider whether he shall translate the
word " foreigner " by peregrinus, hospes, advena,
barbarus, by feVo<? or @dpl3apo<;, he learns a number
of ideas by no means unimportant which were pre-
valent in the classical period. The last of these
words is, indeed, of high importance to the history
of civilization, and the teacher can very well afford
to spend a moment upon it.
Modern languages — French and English of the
present day — do not, and cannot, produce this effect,
and a capable student can never learn from them
what he can learn from Horace or Homer concerning
human life regarded from the historical point of
THE HIGHER STAGES 153
view. Yet they, too, make a contribution to what
is known as general education, though much of this
consists of practical or useful information. Some
portion, however, does concern the past, and is,
therefore, an influence upon historical training.
We have already observed in reference to modern
languages that we do not share the rising objection
to books of selections. We would gladly see in the
hands of the pupils books of French or English
extracts, not merely well chosen, but also compre-
hensive in character. Those of Plotz or Herrig
both seem very suitable for this purpose. Probably
hardly a third of them can be read in school, but a
considerable proportion of the pupils, when the
instruction is inspired by genuine interest on the
master's part, will read the remainder, or much
of it, for themselves. The pupil who does this will
advance his historical culture as follows : In the
first place, the leading figures of French national
literature — Racine, Moliere, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc.
— will be something more to him than mere
names ; in the second place, he wall learn for what
reason French literature so long outstripped our
own, until the middle of the eighteenth century,
when the German spirit began to realize itself.
Thirdly, he will involuntarily make a constant com-
parison between his own nation and the foreign
nation, and by considering their respective advan-
tages and defects will improve his power of judg-
ment. This we consider is very requisite in the
formation of the historical sense, and a valuable
154 TPIE TEACHING OF HISTORY
means of increasing it. Fourthly, he will extend his
intellectual horizon ; and fifthly, he will learn to
respect the special advantages of French historical
science and narrative, or at any rate will be im-
pressed by these. We do not propose to discuss in
what manner French should be taught in secondary
schools, but this advantage is incomparably higher
than the capacity to use the velar palate with
certainty or to order a beef -steak in France without
raising a smile upon the face of the waiter. Of
high importance, too, even from the point of view
we have mentioned, is the practice of translation
into French, and our limited capacities are totally
unable to comprehend the regulations of the Prussian
syllabus for 1892, which stipulates that from the
Upper Fifth downwards written translations should
be made only from French into German, and not
vice versa ; nor can we understand why many of
our authorities on modern language teaching object
to a practice that seems to us so entirely obvious.
English does not seem so beneficial for our
special purpose as French — at any rate, in the
classical school. In the modern school English will
always be of importance, even with reference to the
historical training of the pupils ; but in the classical
school English is optional, and is in the experimental
stage, so that probably only the most competent
teachers will succeed in securing any considerable
number of pupils. The chief objection is that the
English language is too nearly akin to the German,
both in point of view and expression. Gibbon,
THE HIGHER STAGES 155
Macaulay, Lecky, Prescott, even McCarthy, Hallam,
Stanhope, etc., are good or some of them great
historians ; Carlyle's Cromwell, his French Revolution,
and his Frederick the Great are works of high origin-
ality and genius ; but the reader, even if he be of
mature years and entire master of English, will lose
very little if he reads these works in a French or
German translation. Even Milton loses but little
in German, and only of Shakespeare can it be said
that he must be read in English if his spirit is to be
entirely grasped, and that his influence upon the
formation of the historical sense is far greater if he
be read in the original than in the most excellent
of translations. As regards later study, the case
is different. English at school produces no real
benefit until later, and is intended to be continued
in after-life, its educational value being but small
at the outset ; whereas Latin, Greek, and, to a less
degree, French exert a strong educative influence
even upon those who may find no special use for
them in later official or professional life.
Such, then, is the intellectual pabulum of the
Sixth-Form boy, in addition to that provided by
the three lessons of historical teaching proper. Geo-
graphy we no longer regard as a special subject
after a boy leaves the Upper Fifth. Apart from so-
called physical geography, its importance has been
absorbed by history. We have already spoken of
the recent demand in Prussia for twenty-four
geography revisions of three lessons a week. These
we consider little more than a side dish upon the bill
156 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
of fare. We have two years before us, with three
lessons a week, and our subject is history from a.d.
470 to 1871, with the possible addition of a summary
to 1888 or 1900. Fortunately, we need not discuss
what ultimate goal will be accepted by posterity
in five hundred years. Sufficient unto the day is
the evil thereof !
The wide extent of the matter for treatment is
the first tangible obstacle. This is, in truth, a great
difficulty at any stage of secondary-school instruction,
and especially at this upper stage, as full knowledge
and the completion of the period set is reasonably
demanded. The system of distribution has become
almost conventional. It is official in Prussia, and
has been adopted in most of the syllabuses of the
other German States. It is as follows : During the
first year medieval history to 1517, and, according
to the Prussian syllabus, the part of modern history
from 1517 to 1048. Thus, a whole year is left for
the period from 1048 to 1871 (1888 or 1900 or 1904),
the two final periods of modern history, according
to the traditional mode of revision. Here, too,
" information concerning our social and economic
development " should also be treated.
As regards this division, it must be said that it
involves the danger of adding another burden to
the task of the history master, which is already
unduly heavy. Every period has its prominent
ideas and special interests, which naturally affect
the history teaching in the higher schools. Thus,
the religious and dogmatic point was prominent in
THE HIGHER STAGES 157
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, literary
and aesthetic considerations dominated the close of
the preceding century, while philosophical interests
were paramount between 1820 and 1830, the age
when Hegel's philosophy held the field. At the
present moment social and economic developments
are the leading interest or catch-word. It is natural
and right that these matters should now be given
a first place in our historical works.* Many history
teachers in secondary schools, without waiting for
any ministerial decree upon the point, have given
full weight in their teaching to these realistic
points in order to keep in touch with the national
life. For this very reason it is advisable to warn
younger colleagues against exaggeration, since these
points have now received official countenance,
though they were formerly regarded askance. The
subject was discussed by the fifth meeting of head
masters in the Rhine Conference (1893), and also
by similar meetings in other Prussian provinces,
upon the basis of careful reports. It was very
properly asserted that instruction in this subject
is not an end in itself, but should be given only in
the closest organic connexion with history teaching
as it proceeds in chronological order. The motions
adopted are marked by the usual idealism and high-
* For instance, in the brilliant and stimulating work of Lam-
precht, which will be occasionally referred to in the discussion
of our subject. From Lamprecht's German history the teacher
will find much that is stimulating, and his teaching will benefit
indirectly, but not directly. We must therefore advise our
younger colleagues to approach this subject with great caution.
L58 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
flown phraseology ; the particular should be raised
to the sphere of the universal, etc., but these out-
growths have been restrained within due limits.
All school instruction is educative, and it will,
therefore, suffice, when the social or economic con-
ditions of a period are in question, that the teacher
should give his pupils clear conceptions and not
empty words. He will, at any rate, discover that
it is by no means easy to bring home to the com-
prehension of boys matters that seem entirely
simple, such as the difference between allodium
and beneficium, or the relation between money and
credit when he expounds the bankruptcy of Laws
in 1720. In this connexion we must also object
to the idea which would make it the duty of school
history teaching to oppose socialist aberrations.
There is no great danger that the ranks of the social
democrats will be strengthened by pupils from
those classes of society which support our secondary
schools, while any introduction of this political
question with a definite purpose of opposition might
easily produce a contrary effect upon immature
minds. Social democracy is by no means a new
phenomenon ; we have seen it at the helm of the
State in 1793 and in 1871, and enough is done when
the cases are mentioned as historical facts ; the
application of the facts can be left to the pupils
themselves and to the future. In these higher stages
historical teaching cannot permit digressions ; its
quiet progress must accustom the learner to adopt
a historical standpoint and thus provide him with
THE HIGHER STAGES 159
the best means of gaining a further and deeper
knowledge of social and economic conditions ; this
will be the best weapon with which to combat social
democratic and other revolutionary movements.
Here, too, we would expressly state that we
adopt temporarily as a concluding point of detailed
historical study in the secondary school the year
1871 — the restoration or revival of the German
national State. We believe that most history
teachers, like ourselves, will be profoundly thankful
when they have really reached this goal. An hour
or two may be left for a short chronicle of events
until 1888, or to the " present time," i.e., in the strict
sense of the term, to the very moment at which the
master is giving the lesson. Events subsequent to
1871 are certainly history, but cannot be strictly
taught or learnt as such. Take the case of an
Old-Catholic, or Protestant, or Roman Catholic
master, who has lived through the history of the
last thirty years, or any part of it, with full
appreciation of its importance ; it would be im-
possible for such a man to relate the ecclesiastical
struggles which are essential to the comprehension
of this period with the calm impartiality which
is expected of the history teacher in the secondary
school.
After this preliminary discussion we will pro-
ceed, as previously, to treat severally of the text-
book, the lecture, and the revision, and to indicate
the modifications required by the age and develop-
ment of the pupils concerned.
160 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
Herbst was the first to emphasize the essential
point that the text-book should observe its due
limits, and should be nothing more than an auxiliary ;
in itself it should be of no importance, and must not
take the butter from the teacher's bread. While
true of every Form, this is especially true of the
Sixth. The text-book must contain historical
material in brief form, well arranged, easy to refer
to, and readily intelligible. Those who propose to
provide the world with new books of this kind
might take as a model of style the works of
old Spittler — now out of date, but masterly per-
formances in this and other respects — especially
his works upon Church history and the history of
the European States. The same remarks apply
detractis detrahendis to Hase's ecclesiastical text-
book for University lecturers. The book must be
so arranged as to make a tabular chart of events
superfluous ; at the same time it must be so full as
to enable the teacher to treat certain portions with
close reference to the text, and thus to gain time
for more detailed treatment of those parts which
Ins studies and his practical experience enable him
to expound at greater length.
No special rules can be given for the use of the
text-book by the teacher as to closeness of the con-
nexion he should maintain with it while lecturing ;
he should not criticize or contradict his text-book — as
often happens — for the pupil must not be taught to
despise his books. The nearer, however, we
approach the University stage, the more independent
THE HIGHER STAGES 161
must be the position of the master. In view of the
scantiness of the time and the fact that he is required
to complete the period, he must not be content to
go through the text-book simply paragraph by
paragraph. In my youth and in my home at
Wurtemburg a common question among first-term
students was, with whom and how one had learnt
history ; and the statement that one or another
history master had lectured independently of the
book was received with a kind of surprise as an
extraordinary phenomenon. Kiesel* in his report
upon history teaching — which we have no hesita-
tion in pronouncing the most careful and readable
report which we know — makes an acute and some-
what malicious observation, that wherever the
merits of historical teaching are discussed, indepen-
dent lecturing is regarded as indispensable — a state-
ment in pleasing contrast to much actual experi-
ence. The contrast would be even more pleasing
if more were done and less demanded in this respect
within reasonable limits. Elsewhere I have ob-
served that the best teacher of history I have known
— Christian Marklin (died at Heilbronn in 1848) —
did not lecture independently, but worked at his
history with constant industry, reading from a
detailed manuscript which was admirable both in
form and content, and producing by this means and
by force of character an effect the depth of which still
is visible to me and to many of his pupils. The term
* Yerhandlungen der ersten rheinischen Direktor Konferrenz,
1881, p. 100.
II
162 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
" independent " or " informal " lecture is wholly
relative ; if the University teacher can have a
manuscript or full notes before him there is no
reason why the schoolmaster should not follow the
same procedure, seeing that his task is no easier.
After fifty years' experience, I could not pledge my-
self to lecture at any moment without any assistance
whatever from notes upon some complex historical
subject, such as the preliminary causes of the French
Revolution ; nor would I perform the feat if I could.
Demands and regulations in this instance are worth-
less, so easy is it to invent fine phrases upon this
subject.
It is unnecessary to expound the other advantages
which the lecture should have — clarity, vivacity,
patriotic or religious warmth and enthusiasm. We
will content ourselves by offering to our younger
colleagues the homely advice that they should use
short sentences and as few substantives as possible,
confining themselves to concrete terms. Such is the
advice of G. Rumelin, a clear and strong thinker
to whom we and the text-books of Herbst owe this
principle, which we have found sound and practical.
In entering into details about the two years' course
for the Sixth Form we are well aware that our obser-
vations are less impartial and rather more a matter
of personal opinion than they have hitherto been.
None the less, we may be able to give useful hints
to younger teachers, and to enable them to avoid
mistakes from the experience of our own errors and
those of others, and by what we have learnt from the
THE HIGHER STAGES 163
skill of others and in our own search for the right
method.
The first year in the Lower Sixth will be occupied
by medieval and a portion of modern history ; we
consider it impossible and inadvisable to continue
this latter to 1648, and will be content to reach
1555 or 1618 at the utmost. For medieval history
the indispensable minimum of time is that from
Easter to Christmas ; in the succeeding three months
it is impossible to treat with any fullness the im-
portant century of the Reformation — a European
event which determined the future history of every
country — together with the first half of the following
century, including the Thirty Years' War. The
period is too wide for that detailed treatment which
is not merely desirable, but necessary. For false
views upon the course of these events have increased
and become powerful in Germany, since the first
edition of this book.
Medieval history can and should be treated
primarily as German history ; theoretical recognition
of this fact is so universal that we need not labour
the point. Some two lessons will be devoted to the
" pre-history " of the Teutonic nationality ; it will
be assumed that the Upper Fifth have secured a
general view of the history of the Roman Empire :
it is unnecessary, for instance, that the campaigns
of Drusus and Germanicus should be severally im-
pressed upon the pupil's memory. The conditions
applicable to Greek and Roman history hold good
here, and we shall, therefore, not delay unduly over
11—2
164 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
the hypothetical history of primitive times. What
is certainly known of the primitive life of the
Teutonic tribes can soon be narrated ; moreover,
the Upper Sixth will shortly be reading the Germania
of Tacitus, and can then secure all necessary in-
formation upon the social and economic development
of that period. The Roman imperial power in this
connexion will be briefly treated as preliminary to
medieval German history, and we shall not be led
astray by the demand for a detailed treatment of
Roman imperial history. On this subject Harnack
made some useful observations in the discussions
and proceedings of the Berlin Conference of June,
1900 {Verhandlungen, p. 364 f and 145 n\). He
suggests that our treatment should include " under
the imperial age, the rise of Christianity, the tension
between Church and State, the gradual amalgama-
tion of Christianity with the intellectual culture of
the ancient world, and the eventual harmony
between the two — the whole to be related from the
standpoint of universal history, with reference to
the most important literary monuments." If this
is possible at all in secondary schools, it belongs to
the divinity lesson.
Odoacer can be dismissed in a few sentences ; on
the other hand, our sources of information permit
us to construct a more definite picture of the brilliant
period of the Gothic supremacy in Italy, including
the kingdom of Theoderich, the heroic struggles
of the nation, and the Byzantine restoration.
Chlodwig and the special brand of theology on which
THE HIGHER STAGES 165
his conversion is based may be similarly treated. It
will, however, be advisable in dealing with Frankish
history up to the time of Charles Martell or Charles
the Great to confine ourselves to a short and definite
outline of the period ; no amount of description
will enable the schoolboy to understand the char-
acteristic feature of the period, the fusion of the
traditional Roman culture with the institutions of
Teutonic barbarism. On the other hand, the
genius of Islam, its doctrine and morality, and the
fantastic or mythological elements attached to
Mohammed's teaching, should be sufficiently de-
tailed to provide a clear idea of the influence which
this very remarkable religion has exerted upon the
world. The history of its first conquests in Europe
and of the decisive conflict in 732 is naturally con-
nected with the rise of the new Frankish dynasty
and of the papal authority, the origin and growth
of which as a great moral authority must be de-
veloped from an objective standpoint. Even a
Protestant will recognize the growth of this power
as something providential ; it is not the business of
the history master directly to oppose the theory
that the Papacy was an institution immediately
created by God — a theory untenable by the scien-
tific historian. The master will confine himself to
a detailed account of papal development, and will
thus attain his object. We may observe in general
that here and elsewhere all polemical treatment of
these medieval conceptions, which still retain
much of their force, is to be avoided. Such methods
166 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
are unnecessary for Protestant and Jewish pupils,
and in the case of Catholics are more likely to bar
the way to a true appreciation of the facts ; whereas
it should be our business to keep the possibility of
such appreciation open by a narrative conducted, as
far as possible, sine ira et studio. The conquests of
Charles the Great should be treated summarily, and
his governmental work in greater fullness, in oppo-
sition to the usual method in vogue ; some economic
teaching within the comprehension of the school-
boy can be derived from this subject. The further
history of the ninth century — the a/xevrjva Kap-qva of
the Carolingians — will be given very shortly, and
also the history of Conrad I. and Henry I. ; a fuller
narrative will be required of the Saxon dynasty
until 1024. But here undue elaboration must be
avoided ; the struggles of Otto I. with his revolted
brothers and sons remain as vague to the pupil as
do the leading figures, of whom no clear picture can
be gained. More definite characterization is pos-
sible in dealing with the imposing figure of Otto I.,
but little in the case of Otto III. and Henry II.,
and none in the case of Otto II. When the most
necessary information has been given we must
explain, before proceeding further, what achieve-
ments had been made in Germany up to that point ;
the repulse of the marauding peoples, the new sense
of union with Italy and with East Rome, and the
great advance of civilization. Bruno, the great
Bishop, stands out with some precision in our
sources of information, and shows us the medieval
THE HIGHER STAGES 167
Church of the tenth century in a highly creditable
and attractive light. In the following period a new
difficulty arises ; the culminating point is reached in
the religious quarrel and conflict between Henry IV.
and Gregory VII. The impartiality of the history
master will find opportunity for exercise in re-
storing the true picture of these two opponents,
whose characters have been falsified or distorted
by contemporary partisans. I know that at the
present day, as in my youth, fifty years ago, teachers
are accustomed to enlarge upon the insult inflicted
upon the German kingdom at Canossa ; the truth
is that Henry IV., by his penance and by the
absolution he thereby secured, gained an undoubted
victory over Gregory, while the penance, which was
performed in the traditional manner, was certainly
not calculated to degrade him in the eyes of his con-
temporaries. One obstacle which confronts us
throughout the Middle Ages we cannot entirely
overcome ; it is impossible for us to sympathize
with the theory of a " visible invisible " world,
which brought the invisible world into immediate
connexion with the visible to an even greater extent
than was ever possible in classical times. We must,
therefore, confine ourselves to facts, being careful
to use the advantage which such history as that of
the First Crusade will offer when these facts are
given to us with a certain epic abundance.
The next period, covering from the Crusades to
Rudolf of Hapsburg, provides far greater oppor-
tunity for characterization and individual detail ;
168 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
instances are Frederick Barbarossa, Frederick IT.
in particular, Henry IV. if necessary, Bernard of
Clairvaux, Alexander III., and Innocent IV. Even
after reading the very detailed work of Giese-
brecht — the seven volumes of which do not reach
the death of Frederick I. — or after working through
the three thousand pages of Albert Hauck's im-
mense and important work upon the ecclesiastical
history of Germany, we shall, none the less, be forced
to admit that the medieval world is essentially alien
to our comprehension, and that vivid and realistic
description — the most fruitful part of our instruc-
tion — is only possible here to a very moderate
extent. Formerly the period of the Hohenstaufen
was regarded as an excellent opportunity for arousing
patriotic enthusiasm and producing an ethical effect
when dealing with medieval German history.
Upon this subject, however, we have grown gradually
stricter, and require for every kind of historical
narrative, including secondary school teaching, the
facts as they actually happened, apart from any
artificial colouring, and we are making a sharper
distinction than before between ethical and pathetic
effects. At the same time this period of liistory is
by no means lacking in opportunities for idealism,
and these are to be found, as the term implies, in
the ideas inspiring the men of the period. In one
respect this period from the Crusades to the Inter-
regnum has something of the highest ethical value in
it. Though these men were intellectually so narrow-
minded, so uncultured, and so limited, yet they were
THE HIGHER STAGES 169
superior to ourselves in one point : they could
sacrifice their personal comfort, and even their lives,
to an idea.
The master's most difficult task is probably the
last period — the close of the Middle Ages, from
Rudolf of Hapsburg to Luther's declaration — and
especially difficult is the early portion — the end of
the thirteenth century and the whole of the four-
teenth. Here we should advise very summary
treatment, in order that as much time as possible
may be secured for the highly important fifteenth
century. In this case ecclesiastical affairs again
become prominent ; the problem which confronted
us in the Fourth Form here becomes more serious, as
we are dealing with pupils of greater power, and this
is a difficulty or a task which is not to be dismissed
with a few vague generalities. The ecclesiastical
opposition which divides the nation at the present
day began then, and the Church movement of the
fifteenth century gave it a form which is obvious
even to the modern schoolboy ; hence we have to
face the fact that we are teaching pupils of different
creeds — that is to say, pupils whose attitude towards
these matters is very different, by reason of their
home training and other influences of the kind.
Often in teaching for a considerable period a Sixth
Form, composed of the two religious creeds in equal
proportions, has the characteristic question occurred
to me, How can it be possible to teach Catholic
and Protestant schoolboys modern history by pre-
cisely similar methods ? The answer is simple
170 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
enough : we are teaching history, and not theology ;
but practice is by no means so easy. The chief law
for the teacher is in every case to tell the truth,
which, in practical dealing, implies that he should
not implant false ideas. A second command con-
tained within the first, as the love of one's neighbour
is implied by the love of God, is to say no more
than the pupil can understand — no more than is,
or can become, the truth to him. In these cases,
if anywhere, prudence is the mother of wisdom,
until the teacher's wisdom becomes the mother of
his prudence, and the critical moment when he
must remember this fact does not occur when
dealing with the Reformation and its results, but
when dealing with the council movement of the
fifteenth century, and especially with the trial of
Huss. My long experience of Sixth-Form teaching
in a school where the two creeds are represented
has convinced me that it is advisable to say a few
plain words to the Form when beginning the dis-
cussion of this period. I usually say that we are
now entering upon a period when the existing
opposition between Catholicism and Protestantism
also becomes important in the narration of historical
events ; that if any of my Catholic pupils should
feel themselves offended by any points of my
narrative, I should be glad if they would say so,
and I would then lend them a narrative written from
the Catholic point of view, which they can read for
purposes of comparison (for instance, in the case
of the Protestant Leo). I then proceed to urge
THE HIGHER STAGES 171
that in the teaching of history it is not our business
to discover whether Catholicism or Protestantism
be more correct, whether Huss or the majority of
the Council of Constance, whether Luther or the
old Church, were respectively justified ; our task is
to expound to the best of our power what actually
happened. I then proceed to the task of narrative,
and describe the trial of Huss as I have long ago
conceived it, and as it is now generally regarded,
representing it as a tragical conflict between two
forces : on the one hand the majority of the Council
which was honestly anxious to reform the Church,
and equally anxious to maintain the principles of its
fathers and its dogmatic system ; on the other hand,
an individual Christian of somewhat limited views,
but entirely honourable, who had seceded from the
Church unconsciously in virtue of the principle
" That the man commissioned by God to preach
must preach unhindered by episcopal or papal
excommunication "; a man who was thus a dan-
gerous heretic in the eyes of his opponents — the
more so as in this and other points he declined to
submit to the authority of the Council, the highest
authority of which these men could conceive. I
have then been accustomed to conclude by telling
the Form, whose attentiveness at this stage is usually
remarkable, that we are not called upon to decide
which of the two opposing parties held the correct
theoretical view, but that it is our business to
understand this special fact — that a man who might
have saved himself with a word preferred to die
172 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
for his moral convictions because he could not con-
scientiously pronounce that word of recantation ;
every one of us, whether he be Catholic or Pro-
testant, here has an example of high fidelity to
conviction. I might add that, though in a position
extremely open to attack, I have never experi-
enced the smallest unpleasantness arising from my
historical instruction.
This question becomes more acute — or, let us say,
more serious — to the conscientious and truthful
teacher when he begins the section usually known
as " modern history " in a special sense. The
fact is obvious at the outset. A large number of
text-books, chiefly composed by Catholics, though
some emanate from Protestant authors, make the
year 1453 — the " Conquest of Constantinople by
the Ottoman Turks " — the starting-point of modern
history, or take the year 1492 — the discovery of
America. Either alternative is demonstrably false.
The conquest of Constantinople is a highly im-
portant event, but not universally so ; the revival
of humanism by the scattered Greeks is an important
influence upon a movement which is gradually
fulfilling its purpose, but is, again, not of decisive
importance to the fate of nations. The discovery
of America belongs to a general view of the his-
tory of discovery, and will conclude the history
of medieval discovery ; it is not an epoch-making
event, opening one of the great divisions of the
history of the world. It is rather an occurrence
without immediate influence of wide effect : of
THE HIGHER STAGES 173
importance to universal history the new continent
did not become until considerably later, for, though
discovered in 1492, it was not explored at that time.
On the other hand, the event which happened on
October 31, 1517, was, in spite of its apparent
insignificance, to dominate succeeding centuries
until the present time, and to determine the life of
individuals and of European nations ; we refer to
the words of Thomas Carlyle upon this subject — one
of the most far-sighted historical observers of the
nineteenth century.* To adopt this wholly prac-
tical and objective standpoint for " modern history "
for fear of confusing one phantom with another,
may lead us scientifically upon the wrong path, and
is cowardice unworthy of the school and of its
members. We must not consider the matter as
indifferent. Historical teaching in schools, as every-
where, should, like the mathematical or natural
sciences, implant respect for facts — that is, develop
the sense of truth — and thus quietly oppose that
untruthfulness and that system of lies and equivoca-
tions which is adopted for purposes of compromise
* The History of Frederick II. of Prussia, vol. i., p. 208, in the
German translation : " The Reformation was the great event of
that sixteenth century. As a man forwarded that movement,
or was idle and hindered its effects, so he can claim to be remem-
bered or forgotten in our age." The whole passage must be read,
though from the historical standpoint we cannot entirely agree
with its one-sided and uncompromising Protestantism. Thus
it is clear that this event brought a new intellectual principle into
the world, which influenced the lives of individuals and nations,
and must therefore take a prominent place in historical teaching.
174 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
and convenience, and has been widely disseminated.
The Protestant teacher will be well advised, and
should, indeed, prefer to bring forward the great
and pure personalities of the Catholic Church — men
such as Contarini or Hadrian VI. ; even the Jesuit
Order should not be caricatured, and wherever the
teacher finds readiness to sacrifice self for an idea,
the sacrifice should be duly emphasized ; it will be
most advisable for him to remind his pupils that it
was not only the Roman Church that burnt or
tortured men of an alien creed.
At the close of the Middle Ages our historical
standpoint undergoes a change ; modern history
can no longer be entirely treated as German history,
as in the case of the Middle Ages ; if it does not
become " world history," yet it must be handled
from a European standpoint. This statement is
especially true of the history of the Reformation —
the foundation of all later history — and in Germany
we must not descend to the level of English or of
French historical teaching. We now propose to
give some indications concerning this last period of
our progress which will deal with the distribution of
our matter and the varying amount of detail that
should be given. The general divisions are as
follows : 1517-1648, 1648-1789, 1789-1871 ; and each
of these three periods, as we shall see, will naturally
fall into three sections.
The first period — that of the religious struggles —
is subdivided into three sections— 1517-1555, 1555-
1618, 1618-1648. The first of these— a detailed
THE HIGHER STAGES 175
account of the German Reformation — will be
assigned to the last three months in the Lower
Sixth. Under favourable circumstances it is just
possible that a teacher may be able to do more, and
to go through the history of the non-German coun-
tries from 1517 to 1618, though we are ready to add
this to the work allotted to the Upper Sixth. The
question is of minor importance ; it is only neces-
sary that the pupil should clearly understand the
fate of the new principle in the other European
countries — Italy, Spain, France, England, etc. An
account must also be given of Spanish history, in-
cluding the revolt of the Netherlands, to 1609 ; of
French history to the death of Henry IV. in 1610 ;
of English and Scotch history to the accession of the
second Stuart in 1625 ; and of German history until
1618 ; the Reformation in Scandinavia can be re-
served until the appearance of Gustavus Adolphus.
This arrangement is advantageous because it will
enable us to resume the history of Germany, and
continue the study of it uninterruptedly from 1555 to
1648 ; we should advise that the whole of German
history from 1555 to 1618 be taken in one lesson —
that is, in barest outline. If anyone cannot under-
stand the reason for this procedure, he will find it in
the first volume of Moritz Ritter. It is far more im-
portant that the Form should gain a clear idea of the
great European crisis in that vast historical struggle
during the ninth decade of the sixteenth century,
and should, for instance, correctly understand the
events of 1588. Otherwise the pupils will be unable
17G THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
to appreciate the Thirty Years' War, where more
detailed narrative is possible, though the military
operations should not be unduly elaborated, and
certainly not in the last period — from 1632 to 1648.
The history of the Thirty Years' War is chiefly a
history of Germany from 1618-1648, and will be
followed by that of the other European countries.
English history in detail to January 30, 1649 ;
the execution of Charles I. ; the Netherlands the
rising Power, and Spain the decadent Power ; a
summary of Italian history ; France, taken last, but
in fuller detail, as here, in contrast to contemporary
developments in England, the absolutism of the
Crown is upon the rise, and will dominate the
following period. By beginning at this point —
French history from the death of Henry IV. to the
accession of Louis XIV. — we again secure the
advantage of a connected account of French history
from 1610-1700 — a procedure advisable, as France
is to be the dominant Power in the following period.
The second period of modern history — 1648-1789
— falls no less easily into three periods ; from the
Peace of Westphalia to the death of Charles II. of
Spain ; from thence to the accession of Frederick II.
of Prussia ; and from thence to the summoning of
the States-General to Versailles— 1648-1700, 1700-
1740, 1740-1789. The first of these sections is
usually known as the age of Louis XIV., and in
describing this it is advisable or necessary to refer
to the social or economic aspects of it which have
previously been turned to account. These include
THE HIGHER STAGES 177
the transformation of a strong feudalism to a strict
monarchical government, the reform of the judica-
ture, the financial administration, the formation of a
standing army, the furtherance of commerce and in-
dustry, the literary glorification and the self-worship
of the monarchy, the taming of the nobility, etc.
Such are the true elements of the age of Louis XIV.,
and it will have been already observed, with reference
to the Huguenot persecution, that bigotry and
fanaticism are bad influences upon administration.
These influences of general culture are far more
valuable and important at this point than the details
of military or diplomatic entanglements. French
history will be succeeded by the English history of
this important period — from the death of Charles I.
to the death of William III. — in other words, to
the consolidation of the revolution of 1689, ending
in 1700. This period of history must also be
worked through in some detail ; it is a period of
English history of universal importance, and displays
men and institutions of a character so original that
the pupils in the upper Forms of any secondary
school should know more of it than a few scattered
dates. We Germans understand English history
better than that of any other nation, for the reason
that it is inspired by a Teutonic spirit common to
us both, and this period — 1648-1700 — is easily
intelligible, whereas the following period — the reign
of Anne and the four Georges — is not of a character
to be narrated in detail. As regards German history
from 1648 to 1700, I feel bound to observe that
12
178 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
it is usually presented to schoolboys in the blackest
colours, and the House of Hapsburg and the Holy
Roman Empire both fare very badly. But we
conceive that the following points should be strongly
emphasized : in the first place, the Emperor was,
unfortunately, obliged to oppose France and the
Turks simultaneously, yet during the second half
or the last quarter of the seventeenth century he
was able definitely to shatter the Turkish power ;
secondly, a further great political success belongs to
this period — the creation of the State of Branden-
burg-Prussia. In describing the reign of the great
Elector there can be no possible objection to treating
his domestic administration in greater detail than
his wars, and doing full justice to the economic and
social importance of the miles perpetuus.
The second section of the second main period —
from 1700 to 1740 — began with the two great wars —
the War of the Spanish Succession and the Northern
War. Here we must inevitably devote some atten-
tion to the military affairs — to the seats of war and
the individual campaigns. Both wars can only be
understood from the European standpoint, and must
be treated as European events ; their special
German interest must be considered, but treated as
a secondary matter. We only refer to the point in
view of the current opinion that everything should
be treated as German history. Both wars — and
especially the treaties which brought them to an
end — provide a welcome opportunity for explaining
the territorial conditions and the balance of power
THE HIGHER STAGES 179
within a continent. The Northern War thus be-
comes supplementary to the Spanish War ; the
Northern and Eastern world, the history of Scandi-
navia and of Russia with Poland acquires strong
interest, and the teacher is thus obliged to devote
one lesson at least to an explanation of the geo-
graphical conditions on which the Russian power
is based ; he will then proceed to give a short outline
of the historical development of this empire, and
will find a further opportunity for comparing the
social and economic developments with those of
other countries. It is, indeed, most important that
boys who are to receive the education of scholars
and to occupy leading positions in the State should
be given more detailed information concerning the
Slavonic nationalities. As regards the teacher's
preparation, he will find all that he requires in
part 2, section i., of Bernhardi's Geschichte Russlands
und der europaischen Politik 1814-1831, pp. 197-436
(Leipsic, 1874). This work is the more to be recom-
mended, as so excellent an outline would not naturally
be sought in the second volume of a history of
Russia in the nineteenth century. The so-called
Northern War gains a certain epic character and
interest from the highly entertaining personality of
Charles XII. His career will be pursued until its
close — that is, until the time when he was " treacher-
ously " shot down, as the story goes, which still
finds credence in histories of reputation. Here an
opportunity arises of the kind that should not be
sought, but should be used when it occurs — an
12—2
180 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
opportunity of showing the mature pupil the nature
of popular rumour and sensational stories, and the
difference between these and serious history. Charles
met Ins death by a shot from the fortress he was
besieging, as has been indisputably proved by two
examinations of Iris skeleton, and five minutes will
be well spent in the application of historical criticism
to tradition. The materials are to be found in
Fryxell's work upon the history of Charles XII.,
which has been translated into German, and whence
the idea passed to such popular text-books as
Jager's History of the World, hi. 476 f.
When the treaties of 1713, 1714, 1719, 1720, 1721,
and their results have been explained, the rest of
the section — from 1721 to 1740 — need occupy but one
lesson, and can be handled in an outline sketch,
which method I distinguish from narrative. Per-
haps here, and not when dealing with 1648 — as the
Prussian syllabus advises — is the best opportunity
to give a general view of the European State
system, either just before the Peace of Vienna in
1735 or as fixed by it. At the same time an
opportunity remains to devote some time to special
details — such, for instance, as the financial methods
of John Law — when dealing with France. Here
useful information may be given upon the economic
meaning of money, credit, bankruptcy, and collapse.
We assume from personal experience that this
date — -1740 — can be reached, even though the half-
year's work is begun at 1555, and not at 1648 ; hence
the second half-year in the Upper Sixth remains
THE HIGHER STAGES 181
for the period from 1740 to 1871. The time will be
adequate, as this portion of history has already been
treated in some detail in the Lower Fifth — a fact
which considerably facilitates instruction in the
highest Form, though the method may be essentially
different. The period from 1740 to 1789 — the third
section of the second main period of modern history
— the age of Frederick the Great — should be intro-
duced by devoting three or four lessons to a general
view of Brandenburg-Prussian history, and to a
revision of earlier events. This is to be a review,
and not a detailed revision, and we repeat that our
review should be handled from a German or Euro-
pean standpoint with equal detail or brevity,
whether the school belong to Bavaria, Wurtemberg,
or Prussia. As regards the details of Frederick
the Great's history we need say but little ; false-
hood and flattery should be avoided ; the truth,
for instance, should not be concealed that the
education of the great man was highly deficient and
partially misguided ; the fact should also be re-
gretted that Frederick William I. has been usually
described as a half -mad tyrant ; but this should
not lead us to pass the opposite boundary of his-
torical truth in dealing with so curious a mixture of
contradictions. The military history should be
kept in strict chronological order by summers and
winters upon the method of Thucydides and his
imitator Archenholz, and the various seats of war
should be carefully distinguished. In narrating battles
there should be no display of amateur strategy or
182 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
learned expositions upon right and left wings ; in
every important battle some pregnant feature
should be emphasized, and for this purpose, as we
have said,' Carlyle's biography of Frederick the
Great is eminently suitable, though historical
philistinism is not likely to agree with his methods of
writing history. The history of Frederick should
be related consecutively up to the Peace of Huberts-
burg; the difficult section — from 1763 to 1789 —
should be more briefly treated, but not too scantily.
Our arrangement would be as follows :
1. Germany.
(a) Prussian section — half of the reign of
Frederick.
(6) Austria — Maria Theresia ; Joseph II. 's
reforms in the hereditary States.
(c) Transition from this point to his attempts
at reform within the empire. Tins
will provide an opportunity of de-
scribing the condition of the empire (cf.
Lower Fifth, above), the political dis-
ruption of Germany and its intellectual
revival.
2. Russia, Turkey, Poland (first partition).
3. The North, Denmark (Struensee), Sweden
(coup d'etat of 1772).
4. Similar despotic reforms upon the other side —
Portugal, Naples, Spain, the rise of the Jesuit
Order, and the general character of the period as an
age of enlightenment.
5. In conclusion, England and France — their
THE HIGHER STAGES 183
respective domestic developments, their maritime
rivalry ; the struggles in East India and North
America — the former briefly, the latter in greater
detail, as being the early history of the United
States. Hence, in transition, to the history of
France under Louis XVI., as preliminary to the
French Revolution.
Thus we have reached the third period — 1789-
1871 — about the end of October, and if all goes well,
we have yet four months at our disposal. As we
approach modern times, the teacher's task becomes
more difficult, chiefly in consequence of the oppres-
sive amount of information with which we can only
grapple by preferential choice and by somewhat
unequal treatment. We offer a few remarks upon
this subject. The sections are 1789-1815, 1815-
1848, 1848-1871.
In dealing with the history of the Revolution
period proper — from 1789 to 1804 — it will be advis-
able not to go too deeply into the causes of the Revo-
lution, which are extremely complicated, but to
relate its progress with all the completeness possible
until the events of Thermidor. Military events will
be recounted in close connexion with the text-book,
which it is to be hoped may be an intelligible one —
without too much detail. We shall devote more
time to the overthrow of the Directory and to the
reaction of the Revolution monarchy in France upon
German affairs. For the period from 1804 to 1812
military events and the magic personality of
Napoleon become prominent ; at the same time a
184 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
word should be devoted to the beneficial effects,
mediate and immediate, of this tyranny. In passing,
we may observe that a thorough acquaintance with
this period — 1789-1815 — will enable our Sixth-Form
boys far more easily to understand contemporary
history than a bare and superficial outline of the
period from 1871 to 1900, though something of the
kind must be given.
Here, as throughout modern and contemporary
history, the teacher must be careful to avoid ex-
cessive detail about strategy and tactics ; the pro-
gress of wars will be made clear by accentuating the
turning-points at the different seats of war, and
the pupil must be accustomed to read his atlas from
the historical point of view ; the atlas need not
necessarily be a so-called historical one. Adequate
time must be reserved for the history from 1813 to
1814 — especially the former year — -and in the latter
case military details must be given with some com-
pletion ; the school library should be able to pro-
vide some help at this point, and instruction may
well be supplemented by home reading.*
The second section — 1815-1848 — can be briefly
treated, rather in outline than in narrative, with
closer reference to the text-book than in dealing with
* I can recommend Die Befrehmgskreig, 1813-1815. Aus
Urlcunden, Brief en und nachtraglichen Aufzeichnungen von
Augenzeugen beider Parteien dargestellt, by Willi Capeller, 2 vols.
(Berlin, H. Paetel. 1903) ; also Der deutsch-franzosische Krieg,
1870-71. by Hans Vollmer in the same series, and under the same
editorship.
THE HIGHER STAGES 185
the previous period. We shall begin with an
accurate picture of the territorial conditions in
Europe produced by the Vienna treaties, and
explain the essential characteristics of the five Great
Powers ; brief reference will be made to the other
States, after which we shall go through the most
important events in chronological order, as they
occurred in the several countries. Well-informed
teachers may here refer to the Customs Union, as
the seed of German unity, and explain the services
of Frederick William III. and of his advisers.
Fortunately, we have now abandoned the stand-
point of Rotteck or Hagen. The year 1830 is a
halting-place which has lost its importance for
teaching purposes by reason of further develop-
ments, and it will be enough if we briefly outline
the general result of the " great week."
The opening of the third section — 1848-1871 — is
marked by the great crisis of the century between
1848 and 1852 ; this is a subject extraordinarily
difficult of treatment, by reason of the interaction
of widely remote events, which seem to defy all
efforts to provide a general view. I can but refer
the teacher who reads these observations to my own
attempt at the solution of this problem in the
Abriss der Neuesten Geschichte (Wiesbaden : successors
of C. G. Kunze, 2nd edition, 1889, with appendix to
1900) — an attempt upon which is based the section
referring to this subject in the later editions of
Herbst's popular text-book. My efforts have been
based — if, as Lessing says, I may boast of my
186 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
industry — upon an exhaustive study of the facts
and upon long efforts to co-ordinate them — which
is more than I can say for the counter proposals
which certain critics have made.
The period from 1852 to 1863 offers fewer diffi-
culties ; the most important events can be taken in
connexion with the territorial changes in the East and
in Italy, and an outline given of the two wars winch
produced tins change in the map ; the tyranny of
Nicholas I. of Russia and of Napoleon III. will then
be more clearly and effectively explained. Finally,
we shall reach Germany, where, after reference to
its material progress, we shall emphasize the un-
satisfactory and dangerous nature of the political
situation about 1863, with reference to the Federal
Constitution, to Austria and to Prussia. The critical
year is 1863, and to this full weight must be
given, including the crisis of the domestic quarrel
in Prussia, the meeting of the German Princes, the
war of succession in Schleswig-Holstein, and the
general German question which now enters the
stage of decision. Thereupon will follow the new
birth and remoulding of Germany between 1863
and 1871 ; adequate time must be reserved for this
narrative, which is by no means difficult, as the
course of events is very clear, and as the war
of 1866 can now be impartially considered, for
we have long surmounted the chief crisis. The
narrative should accentuate the following points :
1. That the life of a great nation such as ours is
a matter of vast importance.
THE HIGHER STAGES 187
2. That the union of a great nation to form one
State has never been secured by the peaceful co-
operation of its component parts — tantce molis erat
Romanam condere gentem.
3. That the military struggle between Austria
and Prussia, between the old Germany of the federal
days and the new Germany — a civil or fratricidal
war — implied the removal of the stagnation which
would have been death to the nation.
4. That it was an act of Divine providence that
the lessons of history and the recognition of the
pitiable conditions from 1815 to 1863 were forced
upon the old Germany by the new Prussian State
and its slowly growing strength, and not by a
triumphant France.
As regards the reconciling war with France in
1870 and its great result, which is the conclusion of
historical instruction proper, we need say nothing.
The coldest teacher will here be inspired, and the
historian can here find the highest profit and the
deepest satisfaction from his preparatory studies ;
he can leave the eloquence of facts to plead their
own cause.
As regards the lecture to the Form and the presen-
tation of the subject-matter, we have a few words
to say concerning revision in this highest stage. It
is a difficult task for the teacher in either of its two
respects — the revision of the previous lesson or the
revision of the whole sections which have been
worked through.
Great importance is now attached to a connected
188 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
reproduction of the previous lesson by the pupil in
his own words. Of this we have already spoken.
To the previous quotation of the Prussian syllabus
of 1901 regarding the reproduction of what has been
learnt, I should wish to add the words, " So far as
this reproduction can subserve a grasp of historical
connexion and its impression upon the pupils'
minds." We repeat the fact that this exercise must
further the purpose of historical teaching, and is
not merely to be a linguistic training, for it is not
the business of the history master to teach pupils
the use of their own language. All that can be re-
quired is that pupils should learn to express them-
selves intelligently and with some fluency upon the
historical matter that has been already worked
through. The idea that " historical lectures "
should be prepared and delivered by the pupils is
one of the many ideas which would be excellent if
we had more time at our disposal. This, however,
is the business of the University and its historical
seminary. Again, in the case of revision " in in-
formal language," when successive pupils are called
upon to give a connected account of the previous
lesson, we must be careful to avoid rigidity of
practice ; and the more difficult questions will be
better revised by way of question and answer if full
comprehension is to be secured. Constitutional and
economic history must certainly be thus treated. And
the teacher will soon discover that even in the highest
Form but few pupils possess the capacity clearly to
grasp and to repeat an historical sequence of events.
THE HIGHER STAGES 189
The lecture to the Form and the revision from
hour to hour obliges the pupil to work through his
text-book and to learn its contents, and is primarily
intended to secure a connected understanding of
the course of events. Similarly, the revision of
longer sections, as we have previously urged, is
intended to enable the pupil to use the material
he has acquired, and to introduce him to the task
of applying historical knowledge. This process was
begun in the Third Form and continued throughout
the successive Forms ; it is obvious that the practice
can be made far more beneficial in a Sixth Form.
Once again we must emphasize the fact that in our
experience these revisions are one of the most
difficult tasks which can confront the teacher, or
which he can place before himself. The lines upon
which they can be conducted are naturally infinite ;
some of these we propose to set down in the
appendix, hoping that in this way we shall better
deal with this important subject than by developing
a theory of these general revisions. In this practice
— and especially with the Sixth Form — we must be
careful to avoid undue profundity. But to return
to what we said at the outset, the whole of our in-
struction, even in this highest stage, is merely of
a preparatory character ; we are still a long distance
from what was formerly known as the philosophy
of history or the biology of mankind — to use the
phrase of Thomas Buckle in his History of Civiliza-
tion in England (1865) — a book once famous, and
now unduly neglected. It is at the same time
190 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
essential to the preparatory nature of our instruc-
tion that the pupil's gaze should be directed upon
such higher objects as are visible at a distance.
He must understand that every piece of knowledge
is intended to lead to further knowledge, and that
every stage of acquisition is but preliminary to
further acquisition ; he must realize the further
implication that every advance to a higher stage of
knowledge implies higher claims upon the moral
powers of mankind.
In our instruction we reject all preaching, all
so-called stimulus of patriotism and of other virtues
of the kind ; at every step we demand that our in-
struction should be, above all things, true, and should
avoid both the exaggerations of the flatterer and
the optimist, and the pessimism of would-be im-
partiality. At the same time we do not wish to
imply that secondary-school instruction in history
should not in every case deal with the subject from
the standpoint of freedom and responsibility ; we
insist that what is morally hateful or despicable
should be characterized as such. Tout savoir est
tout yardonner is a favourite saying in our effemi-
nate times ; we, however, would point out to
our historical teachers by way of conclusion that
their work can only be fruitful when their pupils
learn the habit of strict judgment upon ethical
matters, and that we would rather see a teacher
overstep the golden mean in the manner of old
Schlosser than in that of Ranke. We refer here
to the general spirit in which history should be
THE HIGHER STAGES 191
taught. Occasions will always present themselves
for a call upon the moral judgment of the pupils
— such occasions as the secession of Henry IV.,
the trial of Mary Stuart, the execution of Michael
Servetus, or of the Due d'Enghien.
Here we might obviously touch upon many
incidental points — the possibility of a general re-
vision of any one period from special points of view,
the question as to how far home reading can, or
should, support Form instruction ; we might give
literary information for the teacher's preparation of
special periods ; we might express our wishes with
reference to the training of the embryo history
teacher at the University ; we must not, however,
be led astray by questions, the discussion of which
would be of no immediate advantage to our
readers.
We have been unable to give information upon
any special art or method which can facilitate the
burden of historical instruction and make it easier
than it naturally is. A principal subject of in-
struction it is not ; but a subordinate subject when
badly taught can easily become a primary source of
evil, like any other. On the other hand, any sub-
ordinate subject when well handled, and, therefore,
good historical teaching, can compensate and repair
many deficiencies and failures apparent in the
other subjects of school instruction. Should the
teacher who is true to himself, find to his grief
that his instruction is far removed from his own
192 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
ideal, he may, none the less, comfort himself by
the contemplation of what is achieved within the
school by the co-operation of the various forces
there operative ; this result, even in our own sub-
ject, is by no means small. Even if we assume, as we
should do, teachers, text-books, and scholars of only
average merit, yet the achievement of these scholars
is by no means light. One advantage they have had,
and one which gives the pupil of the classical school
an advantage over the pupil of the modern school,
though in other respects they run upon parallel
lines ; he has had nine years' close training in two
important civilized languages, and has been reading
graduated authors of first-hand historical im-
portance ; he has learnt to perceive, and to a certain
extent to feel, by experience the connexion of modern
life and thought with the civilization of the remote
past ; he has followed German literature from the
fable and the fairy-tale to the pitch of high tragedy,
and has thus gained a glimpse of our national
growth ; he has learnt one or two modern languages
so far as to understand the identity and the dis-
similarity of German, French, and English
nationalism, and has thereby learnt both national
pride and national modesty ; twice has he travelled
through the centuries, the nations, and the ages,
has seen and known many men and towns, like
Odysseus, and has secured a knowledge of the most
important facts which will serve as landmarks in
any prosecution of his studies. With the guidance
and support of religion and religious instruction he
THE HIGHER STAGES 193
has come to understand the idea of humanity,
which from an empty phrase has become a truth and
an accomplished fact ; these forces and influences
have finally implanted a sense of duty and a con-
sciousness, or the germs thereof, compelling him
to admit that his life is inevitably devoted to a
fatherland and a nation which existed before any
one of its members, and will exist long after they
have gone — in a word, he will understand his
position as a member of the human race.
13
APPENDIX
Lecture to a Third Form.
(The Battle of Cannse has been narrated in the pre-
ceding lesson, and the characteristic points repeated.
The master continues.)
A Roman statesman who took part in this war,
and was probably present at the disaster of Cannae —
M. Porcius Cato — tells us that in his time there was a
general belief that on the day following his tre-
mendous victory Hannibal was urged by one of his
generals to march at once upon Rome, as he would
certainly find the city in panic, and its capture
would be easy. " In five days," Maharbal, the
cavalry leader, is said to have asserted, " you will
be dining in the Capitol." Hannibal is said to have
answered that he would consider the proposal, and
some days later, after securing the plunder and the
prisoners, and burying the dead, he returned to the
subject of his own accord, but the cavalry general
replied " that it was now too late, as the news had
already reached Rome."
Hannibal, no doubt, had his own reasons, of which
we shall speak later, for rejecting this advice. He
would no more have been able to take Rome by a
194
APPENDIX 195
sudden surprise than the Germans could have sur-
prised Paris in 1870, after the Battle of Sedan ; so
much is obvious from information given by the
classical historians concerning the attitude of the
Roman government when the news of the defeat
arrived.
At the same time, the first impression was so great
that every one seemed paralyzed. We have already
heard that some of the fugitives from the battle
were able to make a short stay in Canusium. where a
patriotic woman— Busa by name — gave them the
first refreshment they received ; among these despair
was so great that some of the younger officers began
to consider whether it would not be better to take
flight across the sea to some king, as the cause of
Rome was lost. We are very glad to read that a
young man of the Roman nobility — P. Cornelius
Scipio — displayed a true Roman and patriotic spirit ;
the more grievous the calamity, the more ready we
should be to support our country. He is said to
have confronted these misguided men with drawn
sword, and to have forced them to swear an oath,
which he himself was the first to take, never to
abandon the Republic or allow anyone else to do so.
Very similar was the state of affairs in Rome when the
news of the disaster reached that city. No classical
author has described the first impression, but it
can easily be imagined ; all was lost, both Consuls
had fallen, the army was annihilated, and the excite-
ment and panic were increased by the terrible details
which came in by degrees. Almost every house
13—2
196 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
had some loss to bewail, and even more grievous was
the uncertainty for the fate of their relatives in the
majority of cases ; hence the population, and the
women in particular, abandoned themselves to
sorrow and to fear. There was, however, in Rome
a body capable of governing and of guiding the
ship of State throughout the most violent storm ;
this was the Senate, and the two praetors, who had
remained in Rome, had no hesitation in immediately
summoning the Senate to the Curia Hostilia.
We know how the Senate was composed ; it was
invariably recruited from men who had held the
qusestorship — a high and responsible office — and
who then became life members of the Senate, pro-
vided they had passed the censorship satisfactorily.
The Senate was therefore an assembly of men who
had been elected by the confidence of the people,
and who yet stood apart from popular passions,
an assembly of officials and heads of ancient families,
who were accustomed to deliberate calmly and with
experience ; where leadership, organization, and
action were required, as in the present instance,
they were fully equal to the task. The necessary
arrangements were speedily made ; public order
was restored, public lamentations were forbidden ;
scouts were sent out to gather news and to see
that all news was first given to the praetors, lest
undue excitement should be aroused : the gates
were guarded by detachments of soldiers, and no
one was allowed to leave the city. A letter arrived
from the Consul Terentius, which revealed the whole
APPENDIX 197
extent of the misfortune, and disastrous news also
arrived from other quarters, from Cisalpine Gaul
and from Sicily ; but the determination of the
Government had already taken the measures most
necessary for the defence of the city, and for this
purpose a dictator was appointed, according to
ancient custom. Religious duties were not for-
gotten ; serious consideration was given to the best
means of averting the anger of the gods, which
was displayed in these repeated calamities, and it
is said that messengers were sent even to Delphi,
the ancient oracle, to secure this information.
Some sacrifices must also be made to the wild super-
stition of the excited multitude, and, in accordance
with the oracle, a Gaulish man and woman and a
Greek man and woman were buried alive in the
forum. More important was the fact that the dis-
sension among the ruling classes, which had largely
contributed to the previous defeats, was now at an
end. There had been strife between a senatorial
party and a popular party, an opposition apparent
throughout Roman history ; Terentius Varro, who
was responsible for the disaster, belonged, as we
shall remember, to the popular party. Against the
advice of the other Consul, ^Emihus Paulus, and
against the counsel of the old Fabius, he had plunged
recklessly into battle, and his action had ended in
this appalling catastrophe. We might expect that
general indignation and popular excitement would
have been visited upon him personally. But the
Senate was wiser. At this moment there could be no
198 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
parties in the State, and when the surviving Consul,
Varro, reached the neighbourhood of the Capitol
with such remnants of the army as he could collect,
the Senate came out to meet him and to thank him
because he had not despaired of the Republic. He
was, however, removed from command, though no
stigma was inflicted.
Rome, which was in any case a strong fortress,
was thus entirely secured against any surprise a few
days after the defeat. Hannibal knew his adver-
saries too well, and was too conscious of their real
powers to contemplate any attempt of the kind.
Like all great men, he was not waging war for its
own sake, and would have been very ready to
conclude a moderate peace with Rome, which
would have checked the crushing superiority of the
Romans, and have restored to his own city the losses
of the previous generation. At this moment he
summoned the Roman citizens from among the
prisoners, and addressed them in moderate terms,
explaining that he was not waging war to the knife,
offering the possibility of ransom, and permitting
them to choose ten delegates to discuss the matter
in Rome. They were accompanied by a distin-
guished Carthaginian, a confidant of Hannibal — by
name Carthalo — who was commissioned to explain
the conditions upon which Hannibal was prepared
to conclude peace.
Carthalo himself was not admitted within the
city ; the delegates, however, were allowed to enter
and to plead their cause before the Senate. The
APPENDIX 199
historian Livy places a moving speech, which you
will afterwards read for yourselves, in the mouth of
their spokesman, and every effort was made to
move the fathers to pity ; a numerous company had
assembled before the Curia demanding with loud
complaints and cries that the Senate should permit
the ransom of their sons, their fathers, or their
brothers from the hardships of captivity. For a
moment, indeed, the Senate hesitated, as it had
done two generations earlier ; who can tell me
upon what occasion ? But here, again, a man was
found, like Appius Claudius on the former occa-
sion, to explain to the Senate what the Roman people
owed to itself, and to assert that there could be no
question of peace or submission so long as the enemy
remained upon Italian soil ; this man was T. Manlius
Torquatus, a descendant of that Manlius Torquatus
who had formerly sacrificed his own son to the
severity of Roman military discipline at a crisis
of the Latin war. He led the opposition, and the
Roman Senate passed a resolution which, terribly
severe as it was, was in consonance with the desperate
situation of their Republic. Ransom was forbidden
and peace proposals rejected ; the delegates re-
turned, and the Roman people without a murmur
submitted to the heroic resolution of its government.
Such is the behaviour of a brave nation and a strong
government in time of difficulty, and Livy says that
this war was more memorable than any that had
preceded it, because it was the struggle of a great
leader and general with a great nation.
200 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
Fourth Form.
(In order to explain our idea of the master's
narrative lecture, we have chosen the somewhat
difficult subject of the conflict between King and
Pope, between Henry IV. and Gregory VII.)
In October, 1075, the dangerous revolt in Saxony
had been completely crushed, and Pope Gregory had
also congratulated the King upon this victory.
Differences of opinion on subjects of negotiation
divided them, but as yet there had been no open
breach. Now, however, that the Pope had overcome
initial difficulties, he proceeded with that ruthless
boldness characteristic of him to prosecute the strict
ecclesiastical ideas which are generally known as
Cluniac, from the monastery in Aquitaine in which
Gregory himself had lived for some time. He
strove first of all to suppress the marriage of the
priests and the practice known as simony, from the
name of Simon, as mentioned in the New Testa-
ment story ; this Simon had offered money to the
Apostles Peter and John in Samaria, that he might
also receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying
on of hands. In the eyes of Gregory and the strict
ecclesiastical party, the priests who received ecclesi-
astical office from a layman, or a layman who offered
such office, were alike guihy of simony, winch Mas
condemned as a deadly sin.
Such practices were then very common on the part
both of clergy and laity ; however, in February of
APPENDIX 201
that year Gregory threatened certain of the King's
councillors with excommunication on the ground
that they had been guilty of simony. He was fully
inspired by the idea that in every case the ecclesi-
astical should be dominant over the secular power,
and that the priesthood should rule all princes and
kingdoms ; it was only natural that he should come
into violent conflict with existing authorities and
make many enemies. Among the superior and
inferior German clergy he had many opponents,
who were alarmed by his ruthless procedure ; in
Lombardy there was a strong opposition party, and
it was known that a similar party existed in Rome
itself, which even attacked and ill-treated him
during the Christmas of 1075. Henry, who was now
twenty-five years of age, therefore considered that he
might easily maintain the old royal rights against the
Pope, and did not take his threat seriously.
Gregory, however, was well aware of the difficulties
of the King's position, nor was he a man to utter
empty threats. In full seriousness he was advancing
this claim, which we now regard as presumptuous
and unchristian, and as incompatible with the
Divine command that we should render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things
that are God's. The councillors were excommuni-
cated, and Papal legates came to the royal court
demanding that the King should separate himself
from the excommunicated and should change his
attitude, which vexed the Church ; in case of resist-
ance, he was himself to be excommunicated. The
202 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
King was angry, as was but natural ; he immediately
summoned the Bishops and the chief clergy of his
Empire to a Synod at Worms, where the deposition
of Gregory was discussed. In a synod at Piacenza
the Lombard Bishops supported this resolution, and
Henry's ambassadors appeared at Borne in February,
1076, to communicate the deposition to a Lateran
Council and to secure its execution. The Council,
however, was entirely on Gregory's side, and the
Pope was thus able to deliver a counterstroke,
which re-echoed throughout the world. With great
solemnity, he pronounced sentence of excommuni-
cation upon the first Prince in Christendom, con-
cluding with the text upon which the Roman
Church founds its claim to supremacy : " Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will found my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it "
(Matt. xvi. 18).
Gregory was able to take this bold step because
the consistency with which he championed the
sternest and strictest ideas widely impressed the
people and corresponded with the opinions prevalent
at that time ; he was also helped by the fact that
Henry was opposed by most of the German Princes,
who suspected him of planning a boundless extension
of his royal power, and feared him because he was
a man of unusual capacity. They came to a
mutual agreement, and Otto of Nordheim, the most
important of the German nobles, again came forward
in opposition to the King, whose high confidence he
had enjoyed for a time. They entered into alliance
APPENDIX 203
with Pope Gregory, who was to aid them in their
object of deposing the King — an object which could
not immediately and directly be attained. They
met at Tribur, in the modern Grand Duchy of Hesse,
and as the King was both too weak and too politic
to use force, a kind of compromise was arranged ;
this, however, was not seriously meant, and the
hostile views and opinions of the princes were but
thinly veiled. They granted the King a short period
— to February 22 of the following year — to secure
his release from the sentence of excommunication ;
until that date he was to abstain from the business
of government, and not even to wear the royal
insignia. In February there was to be an assembly
of the Princes at Augsburg, at which the Pope would
be present, and a decision would then be taken ;
this was a shameful resolution, and would have de-
stroyed both the secular power and their own.
Moreover, the resolution was neither honourable nor
honestly intended. They believed, and with reason,
that they might suppose the King would be unable to
secure his release from the sentence of excommunica-
tion by the Pope. The Pope, in fact, soon prepared
for his journey to Germany, where Augsburg was
his goal, and at this meeting he expected to become
the judge of all the powers on the earth ; he had
harshly rejected Henry's desire to come himself to
Rome for absolution. At that moment he suddenly
learnt that Henry was on the road to Italy.
This had, as a matter of fact, been the King's
determination, but his measures were taken for
204 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
other purposes than those which Gregory assumed.
The Pope supposed that Henry intended to secure
absolution by force. But the King, at the age of
twenty-seven, was too politic to adopt these
methods ; he saw that the union of his two enemies,
the Princes and the Pope, would certainly crush him,
and he also saw that both were anxious to make his
absolution impossible ; if, therefore, he did not per-
form the conditions of absolution, he would be
playing into their hands. This excuse must not be
given them. With wise and rapid decision, he
resolved to secure his absolution from the Pope,
not by force of arms, but by moral suasion and by
a striking act of penance, which would satisfy the
Church's claims. He left Spires, where he had last
been staying, and, accompanied by a few followers
and by his wife, whom he had misunderstood and
unworthily treated, he crossed Mont Cenis in the
depth of winter. The winter is described as un-
usually cold, and the Rhine was frozen for a long
time, until the month of March, 1077. The journey
was extremely laborious, for at that time there were
no railways through the Alps and no high roads.
When he reached Italy, he did not listen to the
offers of the Lombard malcontents, who hated
Gregory most bitterly, but hastened onward to the
Pope. The latter was entirely under the impression
that the German King was coming with hostile inten-
tions, and had therefore betaken himself to the castle
of the most faithful servant of St. Peter — that is to
say, of the Church — and its supreme head ; this was
APPENDIX 205
Mathilda, Countess of Tuscany, and the castle was
Canossa. Before this lonely Tuscan castle King
Henry appeared with a few followers in a hair shirt
and barefoot, the usual apparel of the penitent.
Admission was refused both on that day and on the
second day, when he reappeared and spent the whole
day within the inner and outer circuit walls.
Within the castle very important discussions were
proceeding, and decision was necessary. The situa-
tion was as clear to the Pope as it was difficult. If
he released the King from excommunication, he
would break his agreement with his present allies,
the German Princes ; Henry would be able to re-
appear as King, and the Augsburg Assembly would
have neither object nor purpose. If he refused
absolution, he was contradicting his own priestly
character ; he was, indeed, committing blasphemy
if he refused to absolve a sinner who was ready to
perform full penance — a King and a young man
who had given full proof of his penitence by his
journey across the Alps in winter to satisfy the
claims of the Church. It was impossible for him to
refuse, and this seems to have been explained to
him by Countess Mathilda and by Hugo, the Abbot
of the Monastery of Clugny, who was with him.
On the third day the gate of the inner wall was
opened, and absolution was pronounced by the Pope
without further difficulty, as far as we know. The
Pope, indeed, imposed numerous severe conditions
upon the King, but these did not alter the great
and decisive fact of absolution''; Henry had been
20G THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
received again as a member of the Church, and was
therefore justified in reappearing as King.
It is constantly urged that King Henry's appear-
ance at Canossa was a great disgrace and a deep
humiliation to the German monarchy. This, how-
ever, is not the correct view. Henry did penance
in the usual form, as another great Emperor had
done — Theodosius, in Milan — at the command of
Bishop Ambrosius. He did what every Christian
conscious of guilt was accustomed and bound to
do ; here there was nothing to diminish his royal
honour and nothing that was unworthy of him.
He was doing penance before the supreme head of
the Church — the King before the first Bishop — and
he was humbling himself before the Church and before
God and His priest, not before Gregory. It was rather
Gregory who was the defeated party ; he had been
forced to do what he did not wish, and what he had
expressly or implicitly promised the German Princes
that he would not do. It must rather be accounted
a merit to King Henry that by extorting this abso-
lutism he overthrew the shameful plans of the hostile
princes, whose hatred had invited and empowered
the Pope to make himself supreme over the German
crown. This supremacy would have been a heavy
blow to the Empire as to the Church, to the secular
as to the ecclesiastical power, and the wound in-
flicted would never have been healed.
Henry's position immediately improved ; the
Pope's alliance with the German Princes grew weak
and became ineffective, and a contemporary his-
APPENDIX 207
torian informs us that the Princes were thunder-
struck by the news that the sentence of excommuni-
cation had been removed.
When this narrative has been concluded, Henry's
further history must be briefly explained ; we shall
observe the course of events, the master will say,
under the following main points :
1. The Princes hostile to Henry, acting hence-
forward without the co-operation of the Pope,
elected, in March, 1077, at Forcheim, an opposition
King, Duke Rudolf of Suabia. The result was
war ; it was not until 1080 that Pope Gregory
plainly declared for Rudolf, but the latter fell in
battle at Hohenmolsen (Elster) in this same year.
2. The second opposition King, Hermann of Lux-
emburg, was of no great importance. Henry, who
had been in Italy from 1081, was able to set up an
opposition Pope, Clement III., who crowned him
in 1084 in the Lateran as Roman Imperator.
3. Gregory, in the castle of St. Angelo, summons
the Normans, who liberate him, plunder Rome, and
carry him away ; he dies in 1085 at Salerno in
their territory. The civil or party war continued
both in Germany and Italy.
4. Henry returned in 1084, and in 1093 was
obliged to subdue a revolt led by his son Conrad.
5. He then enjoyed a few years of comparative
peace, while the crusading movement began, and
stimulated the idea of peace among all Christians.
6. In 1103 a new conspiracy on the part of the
Princes and the treachery of his son, who got the
208 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
Emperor into his power by cunning, and ill-treated
him, obliged the King to abdicate.
7. The war is renewed ; the Emperor again
appears on the field, but dies in 1106.
(The master may choose, as he will, any one point
for more detailed treatment. Our only object is to
give an example of the two kinds of narrative —
that continuous, and that in outline.)
Upper-Fourth Form.
In the case of this Form we propose to give only
one or two lines of thought, which may serve to
connect a long revision lasting over one or two
lessons ; the subject will be given out to the Form
beforehand, in order that the pupils may read the
necessary sections of the text-book from this point of
view, and thus take the first step in that science
which we may call applied history. The master
will have worked through the medieval history with
this Form in the Lower Third ; should he feel the
need of some revision of that period, he may begin it
when he has passed the threshold of modern history,
that is, the deed of the Augustinian monk, Luther,
in 1517; the revision should not be too detailed,
and may appear as an examination of one of the
most characteristic phenomena of the Middle Ages ;
the monastic system; the origins of the system;
monasticism in the West ; the Benedictines, 729 ; the
Cluniacs of Clugny in 910 ; the Cistercians and Prse-
monstratensiens ; orders of knights, and mendicant
APPENDIX 209
orders. A master of only moderate skill can here ask
questions concerning the general characteristics or
the most important personalities about 1096, 1190,
1216, and 1226. This revision, however, must be
done in free form, without manuscript or notes, and
he must therefore have in his head an outline
which will guide him from point to point, as other-
wise he will easily go astray amid the complications
of the matter.
Assuming that the period from 1517 to 1555 has
been worked through from lesson to lesson by
lecture and revision, the knowledge acquired will
be examined, extended, and consolidated by a
general revision from the standpoint of the history
of one or two territories — Saxony, for instance, or
Brandenburg — and of two reigning families — the
Wettiner and the Hohenzollerns. What districts
does the name embrace ? What was the attitude
of the dynasty to the Reformation movement ?
That of the individual rulers ? This method will
produce many useful questions quite naturally.
The period from 1555 to 1618 should be treated
in the same way : ducal and electoral Saxony ; the
Universities of Jena and Wittenberg and their im-
portance ; the adoption of Calvinistic Protestantism
in 1613 by Johann Sigismund of Brandenburg. An
attempt must be made to show the connexion of
German with general European history for this
period, as regards its most important dates. This
may be done in the following way :
First give the most important dates — 1556 (1558),
U
210 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
1571, 1572, 1579 ; or 1581, 1588, 1589, 1603, 1608,
1609, 1610, 1618 ; the respective events will then be
assigned to each date by the pupils : the accession
of Philip II. in Spain ; the accession of Elizabeth,
and the triumph of the Reformation in England ;
the battle of Lepanto ; the massacre of St. Bartholo-
mew at Paris ; the creation of the new State of the
united Netherlands. ; the defeat of the Armada ; the
accession of Henry IV. in France ; the House of Stuart
in England ; the Evangelical union ; the quarrel for
the succession of Cleves and Juliers, and the death
of Henry IV. of France ; events in Prague, and the
beginning of the Thirty Years' War. The master
will then go through the events in the same order,
the boys one after another giving the dates.
The section dealing with the Thirty Years' War,
from 1618 to 1648, can easily be revised in one
lesson, and an exact impression given of the terri-
torial conditions of our continent as constituted by
the peace. To make the progress of the war clear
to pupils and easy to retain in their memories, a
few dates and names will be sufficient, such as 1618
and 1 620 ; the battle at the White Mountain ; the
edict of restitution in 1629 ; the dismissal of Wallen-
stein and the landing of Gustavus Adolphus in 1630 ;
Battle of Liitzen in 1632 ; the Peace of Prague in
1635 ; the Diet of Regensburg in 1640, and the
Peace in 1648. It will also be advisable to have the
successive battle-fields named.
Of the three sections of the second main period
of modern history, the Upper Fourth is concerned
APPENDIX 211
only with the two first— 1648-1700 and 1700-1740 ;
for the general revision of the first the following lines
of thought will be useful. (Naturally there are
many others available.)
1. The most important treaties of peace: (1648),
1659, 1668, 1679, 1697 (1699) ; here there is a point
which experienced teachers will not despise — the
sequence of numbers— which facilitates the memor-
izing of these dates : 48, 68, 59, 79, 97. The figures
can also be inspired with some life, an equally im-
portant point, by calculating the years which
separate each new peace.
2. The great and important personalities of this
epoch : Louis XIV., William of Orange, Peter the
Great, etc.
3. The misfortunes and successes of Germany.
(a) The Empire and its losses.
(6) The Hapsburg Monarchy, 1683, 1697, 1699.
(c) The rise of the Prussian State.
The second of these periods — 1700-1740 — can be
revised by repeating the most important rulers, with
their dates, arranged according to countries, con-
cluding with the distribution of territory as it was
in 1740.
Lower Fifth.
For this Form I give a fragment of an attempt to
sketch the conditions prevailing in the German
Empire ; this might form the beginning of the year's
course as introductory to German history for the last
14—2
212 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
150 years, as above presupposed ; or — and perhaps
this is more advisable — it might form a conclusion of
the second main period of modern history (1648-1789),
and be introductory to the last section (1789-1815).
Here I assume the latter plan to be adopted. My
information is derived from Biedermann's- excellent
work — Deutschland im 18. Jahrhundert, vol. i. (Leip-
sic, 1854).
At the present day the German Empire is in-
habited by some 56,000,000 inhabitants, and has
an area of 540,000 square kilometres, comprising
twenty-six States ; the largest of these — Prussia —
has 348,000 square kilometres and 32,000,000 in-
habitants ; and the smallest — the town of Liibeck —
has 297 kilometres and 97,000 inhabitants. All of
these States, with the exception of the three re-
publican towns, are governed by hereditary monar-
chies ; the Prince shares the legislative power with
an elected assembly of representatives, and the rights
of the citizens are protected by a written constitu-
tion, a State charter. The administration, military
service, finance, justice, and education are regulated
by law, within which law every German can give
free expression to his opinions ; religious creed
makes no difference in the enjoyment of those rights
which every citizen can claim.
We shall now attempt to realize some features of
the picture which our country presented 150 years
ago, in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Upon an area of 12,000 square miles — some
3,000 more than the present German Empire in-
APPENDIX 213
eludes — lived, about the middle of the previous
century, from 26,000,000 to 30,000,000 inhabitants.
A motley assemblage of large, small, minor and
insignificant territories or States were distributed,
since 1510, into ten circles. Of such territorial
States, with less than 120 square miles, the German,
or rather the Roman, Empire included about eighty ;
to these must be added about thirty lordships and
1,400 to 1,600 knights' estates. Al] these had the
right or the power to inflict damage upon their
neighbours, their own subjects, or the Empire at
large, by customs dues, prohibitions of trade, and
industrial monopolies, and that hateful symbol of
sovereign power, the gallows, was to be found in
the smallest State.
The Emperor was of little importance. Upon
the occasion of his coronation at Frankfort-on-
Maine, he came upon the scene with great splendour.
On that occasion the hereditary officials, of whom
we have heard, performed their functions ; forty-four
ruling Counts carried the dishes to the Coronation
meal. We have previously read in our reading-book
the incomparable description by Goethe of the elec-
tion and coronation of the Archduke Joseph, after-
wards the Emperor Joseph II., as Roman King in
1764. The Emperor then signed the capitulations
of election, in which the most important point was
that the several States and territories were every-
thing, and the Emperor himself was nothing. The
Emperor had no power abroad, for the Princes and
estates possessed the right of concluding treaties
214 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
with one another and with foreign countries. He
had equally little power at home, for the privileges
of the estates to which he was obliged to swear
embraced complete domestic power, and he was ex-
pressly obliged to renounce any idea of making his
position hereditary in his own family. After this
he entered upon the enjoyment of his legal rights,
and the extent of these can be estimated by the
income which the Emperor gained from the Empire
— a sum of 14,000 florins annually.
At the same time, the person of the Emperor was
the one point of unity for the Empire ; the Imperial
Diet which met at Regensburg implied no bond of
union. In unimportant affairs it might be possible
to unite the three chambers of the Diet — the college
of Electors, the college of Princes, and the college of
the Imperial Towns for co-operation with the Em-
peror ; in important affairs, however, this was im-
possible. Even more ominous was the fact that
when religious questions were under discussion no
majority vote was taken, but the Diet divided into
two corporations — the Corpus Evangelicorum and
the Corpus Catholicorum ; decision was thus impos-
sible, though some understanding might be secured
after long negotiation. Moreover, every important
affair could be represented in the last resort as a
religious matter. Questions, even if they had no
connexion with religion, were naturally retained for
years upon the " Imperial agenda " ; when they
at length came up for discussion they were im-
mediately referred to a preparatory committee ;
APPENDIX 215
debate began, and claims, points of privilege, mis-
givings, objections, provisos, and so forth, came in
from all sides ; resolutions, protocols, protests,
clauses were infinite. Should some decision have
eventually been secured, executive power was
wanting, and there were no pecuniary resources,
so that it was necessary to turn to the goodwill of
individual states, and this was generally far to seek.
We may take an instance which extends throughout
the century. In the peace of Ryswick in 1697
Kehl and Philippsburg were restored to the Empire,
and the Diet resolved to repair or to keep in repair
the latter fortress ; the necessary money, the
" Roman months " — in the strange expression of the
time — was voted, but was still unpaid seventy years
later. In 1714 the proposals for repair were re-
peated ; in 1716 an Imperial rescript was issued ;
the piteous requests of the unpaid workmen were
noted in the document, and the matter was allowed
to drop until 1753, when it was resolved that all
improvements which necessitated expense should be
indefinitely postponed, and this resolution, at all
events, was punctiliously carried out. Eventually
the fortresses were handed over to the Margrave
of Baden, and in 1782 the last fifteen men composing
the Imperial garrison were withdrawn. The condi-
tion of the military organization we have already
seen in discussing the Battle of Rossbach ; the
company, in which the captain was nominated by an
Imperial Count, the first lieutenant by an Imperial
town, and the second by a royal abbess, is but an
216 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
example, and by no means the worst instance of this
extraordinary military procedure. Remarkable,
too, is the strict equality of creed that was main-
tained ; the general staff must contain an equal
number of Catholic and Evangelical marshals and
generals of cavalry. Wherever we turn our eyes
we observe a similar picture of a mechanism utterly
paralyzed. At the same time some notion of
national unity was observable, and there was some
belief in the supreme authority of the Empire in
the single department of jurisprudence ; there was
still an Imperial Court of Justice (Reichskammer-
gericht), which had been held in Wetzlar from 1693,
as none of the larger Imperial towns would admit
it ; nor was there any lack of legal business ; in the
year 1772 there were no less than 61,233 unheard
cases before this court. Procedure was indefinitely
protracted, and most lawsuits extended beyond the
lifetime of prosecutor, defendant, witnesses, judge,
and the point at issue. There was also at Vienna an
authority immediately constituted by the Emperor
— the Imperial Court Council (Reiclishofrath)— which
upon occasion reinstated some injured subject in his
rights when one of the small potentates was con-
cerned, such as the Prince of Reuss ; the more im-
portant rulers paid no attention to any decision or
threatened interference on the part of the Imperial
Court Council.
Thus, for good or evil, the condition of the nation
Mas determined by the good or bad intentions of
the individual territorial lords. In their own dis-
APPENDIX 217
tricts their power was unlimited, and the provincial
estates were no check upon its exercise, though they
had formerly been powerful, with the exception of
certain territories such as the Duchy of Wurtemburg,
where, however, conditions of life were anything but
agreeable for this very reason. It is a period of
princely absolutism ; its outset was influenced most
unfavourably by the example of Louis XIV. in the
direction of empty show, royal pomp and splendour,
and reckless extravagance, while at its close a para-
mount influence was that of Frederick the Great
and of his opponent, the Emperor Joseph II. At
the same time this princely absolutism was also pro-
ductive of much good. The absolute Prince ruled
through his officials ; these were wholly dependent
upon the Prince, and were treated by the smaller
Princes as mere servants ; the Emperor Joseph II.
was the first to address them courteously, though he
bitterly complained of their unwillingness to co-
operate in his humanitarian and reforming projects,
and of their readiness to accept bribes. Frederick II.
was more successful, as his ancestors, and especially
his father, had striven to create a careful, indus-
trious, and conscientious class of officials. Frederick
was able to inspire them with a feeling of respect for
the State, and the South German officials held their
North German colleagues in high esteem. Among
the petty States of Southern Germany official ad-
ministration was extremely bad. Officials, treated
as servants by the supreme authority, protected
themselves by harsh and corrupt administration.
218 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
Their pay was scanty and irregular, apart from their
other hardships ; for instance, a Prince of Ottingen
borrowed, in separate sums, 17,000 florins from his
chief paymaster ; when the latter respectfully re-
quested payment, he was dismissed from office, and
the difficulty was not arranged until a century later,
by a grant of 3,000 florins to the heirs of this official.
Evils of this kind are inconceivable at the present
day, for the reason that the injured party, before
appealing to justice, can easily secure publicity by
means of our highly developed press. The press, or
the publicity, as it was then called, was in those
days but scanty ; thirty or forty political papers
have been enumerated in the second half of the
eighteenth century, as compared with the many
thousands of the present day. Of these the most
influential and beneficial was the Correspondent
{Briefivechsel) of Von Schlozer, a teacher of juris-
prudence in Gottingen ; this periodical lasted from
1778 to 1782, and its continuation, the Staatsan-
zeigen, went on from 1783 to 1792. During its best
period it enjoyed a circulation of about four thousand
copies, and Schlozer was in correspondence with
every class of society, and even with royal Princes ;
copies of the periodical were to be found upon the
study table of Joseph II., and even Maria Theresa
refers to it : "It may be published by Schlozer " ;
" What will Schlozer say to that ?" The leading
monarchs, Frederick II. and Joseph II., had high
ideas upon the freedom of the press. The former, in
his Antimacchiavell of 1741, pleaded the cause of
APPENDIX 219
the newspaper very effectively, and in 1781 Joseph
formed a censorship of enlightened men ; such en-
lightened censors were highly necessary, in view of
the fact that a censor, who had apparently heard
something of naturalism, refused to pass the most
harmless book that ever was written — Raff's Natural
History for Children — which old men like myself have
read in their early school-days.
Before the French Revolution politics were not a
subject of general interest. The evil consequences of
the Thirty Years' War and of other wars had not
been surmounted ; at the same time industrial life,
on which subject we must say a word, was impeded
by many obstacles — in one case by an excessive
number of holidays, which, for instance, in Bavaria
amounted to one hundred in the year ; and in
another case by forced service of many kinds, as
when hundreds of peasants were called out to cap-
ture a deserter. The game and forest laws were in
many places a heavy burden upon the peasantry ;
in Anspach, for instance, the peasants were for-
bidden to keep dogs, to be in possession of guns,
or even to use clubs, under penalty of imprisonment,
and were not even allowed to fence in their own
ground for protection against wild animals. The
saddest and most disgraceful evidence of the con-
dition of our country has always been rightly found
in the trade in mercenary soldiers, which some terri-
torial lords carried on when England was at war with
her revolted North American colonies. The num-
bers are known : from 1777 to 1782, by English
220 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
reckoning, the country sent out 29,100 men, of which
11,853 perished ; of these Hesse Cassel furnished
16,992 — that is, 4-55 per cent, of its population ;
those who were permanently injured were not given
a pension, but a special compensation was paid from
the State chest. The local ruler followed this pro-
cedure, as the terms of the convention ran : "To
manifest his high devotion to the King of Great
Britain, and to attest his inherent sympathy with
the peace and prosperity of the royal States of Great
Britain."
A century later, on June 15, 1888, at the opening
of the first Reichstag under his government, our
Emperor said : " My love for the German army and
my position towards it will never induce me to dis-
turb the benefits of peace unless war should be
forced upon us by an attack upon the Empire or
its allies. Our army should secure us in peace,
and must be able to maintain its honour in the field
if peace should be broken." But before a German
Emperor could speak to a German Reichstag of a
German nation, our nation was obliged to pass
through a century of deep humiliation and severe
struggle.
Sixth Form.
I do not feel it necessary to give any example of
the manner in which history should be narrated to
pupils at this stage, as I have written a lengthy work,
A History of the World in Four Volumes, the out-
APPENDIX 221
come of years of teaching, narrating, and lecturing
to Upper and Lower Sixth Forms, which was then
prepared for the press during a further series of
years, and for a wider public much on the same
level of culture as our Sixth-Form boys. This
work might doubtless be improved, but I cannot
so improve it, and I will only point out the fact
that I am well aware of the great differences
existing between written and oral lectures. I
know that many of my colleagues use that book
in preparing their narrative lessons, and my own
confidence in this work, which has accompanied
me throughout my life, induces me to approve
their action. The details are, however, too numer-
ous, especially in the two volumes of modern
history from 1517 to 1900, to be mastered in the
two years of a Sixth-Form course. On the other
hand, the analysis of the matter will be useful to
younger colleagues, and may save them a consider-
able amount of trouble ; this arrangement, even
down to comparatively small details, has been
printed as an analysis in small type in the margin,
in imitation of the excellent custom prevalent in
England.
All I can do here for these colleagues is to present
a series of questions and leading points for revision
of every kind and without system for occasional
use ; these might be infinitely multiplied and im-
proved. They are confined to the Middle Ages and
to modern times — the main subject of the two last
years of the course. I would point out that revision
222 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
can also be performed by conjoining some ten or
twelve questions, as used to be done in the former
customary examinations ; but in this case the
answers should be given orally by different pupils as
called upon, and not written. Whenever I have
been conducting a Form examination for school cer-
tificates, I have myself been grateful to any colleague
for good questions, and some useful questions will
certainly be found in the following collection.
QUESTIONS
1. What nations have appeared, temporarily or permanently,
upon Italian soil between the fifth and the eleventh cen-
turies ?
2. What were the political features of Gaul about the year
a.d. 486 ?
3. What were the political relations of the Franks with the
Ostrogoths in the age of Chlodwig and Theodorich ?
4. What were the characteristic points of the Arian and
Athanasian theories of Christianity ? Why was the former
the more popular among the Teutonic tribes ?
5. What points mark the westward expansion of Mahoni-
medanism in a.d. 641, 699, 711, and 732 ?
6. Explain and distinguish the terms allodium, beneficium.
7. How far did Arianism indirectly contribute to the increase
of the Papal power ?
8. With what foreign enemies was Charles the Great obliged
to struggle ? What were the frontiers of his empire about the
year 800 ?
9. What was the importance of the event of the year 800, and
what was the attitude and policy of Charles the Great towards
the Church ?
10. Name the events which took place in 496, 752, 800, (951),
962, and explain their importance and their connection.
11. What uncivilized peoples menaced European life, or, in
other words, the imperium Romanum, from the beginning of the
eighth to the middle of the tenth century ?
12. Name the German dynasties from 911-1273, and give the
individual rulers.
223
224 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
13. What is meant by " simony " ?
14. With what opposition Kings had Henry IV. to struggle ?
15. Explain the importance of 1046, 1077, 1177, 1245, or of
Sutri, Canossa, Venice, Lyons, with dates.
16. The Eastorn Question in the eighth, tenth, eleventh, and
thirteenth centuries: 732, 955, 1096, 1241, 1291.
17. What circumstances hampered the prosperity of the
kingdom of Jerusalem and of the other Colonial states ?
18. What attitude towards the Crusades was adopted by the
different German Kings from Henry IV. to Rudolf of Haps-
burg ?
19. 1066 : what different elements or layers of population are
apparent in the inhabitants of Great Britain ?
20. What monastic orders succeeded one another in the
medieval world, and what were their common and individual
characteristics ?
21. The Imperial dynasties from 1273 to 1439 : the individual
Kings, with dates.
22. What are the essential points of the Golden Bull ?
23. Enumerate the most important confederations in Germany
during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
24. What is meant by the expression, " The Babylonian
captivity of the Church " ?
25. What Bull issued by what Pope during a struggle with
what King most emphatically expresses the claims of Papal
supremacy ? Outline its leading ideas.
26. Give the main features of John Wycliffe's movement.
27. The Reformation Councils of the fifteenth century : why
was Huss condemned by a majority inclined to reform ?
28. Christendom and Islam in 711 and 1453, or the gains and
losses of the two " world religions " at the close of the Middle Ages.
29. A sketch of Sicilian history in the ^Middle Ages.
30. The great discoveries of the fifteenth (and sixteenth)
centuries as connected with the dates 1486, 1492, 1498, 1513,
and 1521.
31. With what year and event may modern history most
conveniently be conceived to begin — 1453, 1492, 1517 ?
32. Define the main periods of modern hist cry.
QUESTIONS 225
33. What Princes were considered as candidates for the post
of Roman Emperor in 1519 ? What considerations determined
the votes of the electors ?
34. What was the position of the religious movement in 1521,
1530, 1547, 1555 ?
35. What is meant by " Ecclesiastical Reservation " ?
36. What territories were in possession of members of the
Hohenzollern family about 1525, and what was the attitude of
these members to the Reformation ?
37. What was the relative strength of the two religious parties
in Europe after the religious peace of Augsburg ?
38. What were the relations and the importance in the
history of the world of Philip II. of Spain and Elizabeth of
England ?
39. The importance of the ninth decade of the sixteenth
century in the religious struggle. Name the most important
personalities of this decisive decade.
40. How far is the year 1588 of importance to the history of
the world ?
41. Mention two questions of succession of importance for
their bearing upon after-German history — one in the seventeenth
and one in the nineteenth century.
42. How should the conversion of Henry IV. to Catholicism
be judged ?
43. Name the Roman Emperors from 1558 to 1648, and the
Electors of Brandenburg for the same period.
44. Give a short conspectus of the Thirty Years' War, naming
the combatant powers, the most important battles, and the
seats of war.
45. What were the most important territorial arrangements
made by the Peace of Westphalia ? What were its effects upon
the constitutional position in Germany ?
46. A change of creed in 1613 ; its importance in the history
of toleration. What provisions in this direction were made by
the Peace of Westphalia ? Why did the Pope refuse to recognize
these provisions ?
47. How far is it correct to regard the Peace of Westphalia as
concluding the age of religious strife ?
15
226 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
48. How was it Croat Britain took no active part upon the
Continent during the Thirty Tears' War v
49. What is meant by the term " Puritans " ? What is their
importance in the history of England ?
50. Enumerate the most important treaties of peace during
the second half of the seventeenth century.
51. What were the losses and gains of the German nation in
the second half of the seventeenth century ? The importance
of the years 1657, 1G75, 1681, 1683, 1697, 1699.
52. How far is the year 1685 to be regarded as especially
unfortunate for Protestantism, and the year 1688 as especially
fortunate ?
53. Two important accessions in the year 1689.
54. How far is the year 1697 a fateful date to the Saxon
dynasty, and how far important to the Hohenzollerns ?
55. Explain the relative claims and power of the claimants
on the death of Charles II. of Spain. The areas of war to 1711.
Why and to what extent was the situation changed in this year ?
56. The attitude of Prussia during the war of the Spanish succes-
sion. Her share in the struggle. Her gain by the treaty of peace.
57. The territorial conditions in Europe after the peace of
Utrecht. Changes previous to 1735.
58. The scene of the Northern War ; the powers concerned ;
results as affecting the power of Sweden and Russia.
59. What was the political and economic importance of the
Prussian army under Frederick William I. ?
60. What is meant by the term " Pragmatic Sanction " ?
61. Name the leading statesmen of France who were also
ecclesiastical dignitaries from 1610 to 1743 (death of Flemy).
62. Were the claims of Frederick II. to Silesia well founded ?
63. Give the main areas of war during the Seven Years' War
and the chief battles in chronological order.
64. The three treaties of peace with Austria and the impor-
tance of the conquest of Silesia-
65. The period from 1648 to 1789 is known as the period of
princely absolutism : what two often-quoted utterances character-
ize the absolutism of Louis XIV. and of Frederick the Great,
and show the progress achieved during this period ?
QUESTIONS 227
66. What was the object of Frederick the Great in founding
the federation of the German Princes ? Compare the Schmal-
caldic League of the sixteenth century, the Protestant Union
of the seventeenth, and the German Customs Union of the
nineteenth century.
67. The struggle of England with France for command of the
sea runs parallel with the Continental struggles : what results
were attained in India and North America ?
68. The importance of the Jesuit Order in 1543 and
1773.
69. Compare the reforms of Frederick II. and Joseph II.
For what reasons was Frederick's work more valuable and
permanent than that of Joseph ?
70. Of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, which secured the best
terms upon the first partition of Poland ?
71. The French Constitutions, with reference to the Legislative
Assemblies of 1791-1804.
72. What is the customary and what the true criticism of the
Peace of Bale in 1795 ?
73. A pamphlet appeared in Paris in the autumn of 1799,
entitled, " Cromwell or Monk ?" To whom was it sent, and
what must have been the nature of its contents ?
74. The most important treaties of peace from 1795 to 1815.
75. What turning-points are marked by the 8 Thermidor and
the 18 Brumaire ?
76. What was the extent of Napoleon's Empire in the spring
of 1812 ?
77. Is any fundamental distinction to be drawn bstween the
" system " of Napoleon I. and the Prussian legislation of
1808 ?
78. Pultawa and Moscow.
79. The battles of 1813 in chronological order.
80. The distribution of European territory after the second
Peace of Paris and the Congress of Vienna.
81. The changes in the map of Europe to the years 1848, 1866,
•1871, 1878.
82. The rulers of the most important states in Europe between
1814 and 1888.
15—2
228 THE TEACHING OF HISTORY
83. How far did |bh.e German Customs Union prepare the way
for the restoration of the German Empire ?
84. Compare the dates and define the events of L529, 1083,
1697, 1699, 1711, 1774, 1829, 1856, 1878.
85. Prussia and Sardinia,, Germany and Italy.
86. How far can it be said that William I. completed what the
Great Elector had begun ?
THE END
BII.I.ISi; AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
JL A1JU ijlliJV ll\ I
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Santa Barbara
Goleta, California
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW.
:0w-8,T>0(B2594s4)476
3 1205 00030 2370
/H^
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