Chapter XXIX: Appendix: II

THE HIGHER TEACHING OF HISTORY IN FRANCE

The higher teaching of history has been in a great measure transformed, in our country, within the last thirty years. The process has been gradual, as it ought to have been, and has consisted in a succession of slight modifications. But although a rational continuity has been observed in the steps taken, the great number of these steps has not failed, in these last days, to astonish, and even to offend, the public. Public opinion, to which appeal has been made in favour of reforms, has been somewhat surprised by being appealed to so often, and perhaps it is not superfluous to indicate here, once more, the general significance and the inner logic of the movement which we are witnessing.

I. Before the last years of the Second Empire, the higher teaching of the historical sciences was organised in France on no coherent system.[244]

There were chairs of history in different institutions, of different types: at the Collège de France, in the Faculties of Letters, and in the "special schools," such as the École normale supérieure and the École des chartes.

The Collège de France was a relic of the institutions of the _ancien régime_. It was founded in the sixteenth century in opposition to the scholastic Sorbonne, to be a refuge for the new sciences, and had the glorious privilege of representing historically the higher speculative studies, the spirit of free inquiry, and the interests of pure science. Unfortunately, in the domain of the historical sciences, the Collège de France had allowed its traditions to be obliterated up to a certain point. The great men who taught history in this illustrious institution (J. Michelet, for example), were not technical experts, nor even men of learning, in the proper sense of the word. The audiences which they swayed by their eloquence were not composed of students of history.

The Faculties of Letters formed part of a system established by the Napoleonic legislator. This legislator, in creating the Faculties, by no means entertained the design of encouraging scientific research. He had no great love for science. The Faculties of Law, of Medicine, and so on, were intended by him to be professional schools supplying society with the lawyers, physicians, and so on, which it needs. But three of the five Faculties were unable, from the beginning, to perform the part allotted them, while the other two, Law and Medicine, successfully performed theirs. The Faculties of Catholic Theology did not train the priests needed by society, because the State consented to the education of the priests being conducted in the diocesan seminaries. The Faculties of Sciences and of Letters did not train the professors for secondary education, the engineers, and so on, needed by society, because they were here met by the triumphant competition of "special schools" previously instituted: the École normale, the École polytechnique. The Faculties of Catholic Theology, of Sciences, and of Letters were therefore obliged to justify their existence by other modes of activity. In particular, the professors of history in the Faculties of Letters could not undertake the instruction of the young men who were destined to teach history in the _lycées_. Deprived of these special pupils, they found themselves in a situation analogous to that of those charged with historical instruction at the Collège de France. They too were not, as a rule, technical experts. For half a century they carried on the work of higher popularisation in lectures delivered to large audiences of leisured persons (since much abused), who were attracted by the force, the elegance, and the pleasing style of their diction.

The function of training the future teachers for secondary education was reserved for the École normale supérieure. Now at this epoch it was an admitted principle that to be a good secondary teacher it is necessary for a man to know, and sufficient to know perfectly, the subject he is charged to teach. The one is certainly necessary, but the other is not sufficient: knowledge of a different, of a higher, order is no less indispensable than the regular "scholastic" equipment. At the École there was never any question of such higher knowledge, but, in accordance with the prevailing theory, preparation was made for secondary teaching simply by imparting it. However, as the École normale has always been excellently recruited, the system in vogue has not prevented it from numbering among its former pupils men of the first order, not only as professors, thinkers, or writers, but even as critical scholars. But it must be recognised that they made their way for themselves, in spite of the system, not thanks to it, after, not during, their pupilage, and principally when they had the advantage, during a stay at the French School at Athens, of the wholesome contact with documents which they had not enjoyed at the Rue d'Ulm. "Does it not seem strange," it has been said, "that so many generations of professors should have been turned out by the École normale incapable of utilising documents?... Formerly, in short, students of history, on leaving the École, were not prepared either to teach history, which they had learned in a great hurry, or to investigate difficult questions."[245]

As for the École des chartes, which was founded under the Restoration, it was, from a certain point of view, a special school like the others, designed in theory to train those useful functionaries, archivists and librarians. But professional instruction was early reduced to a strict minimum, and the École des chartes was organised on a very original plan, with a view to provide a rational and complete apprenticeship for the young men who proposed to study mediæval French history. The pupils of the École des chartes did not follow any course of "mediæval history," but they learnt all that is necessary for doing work on the solution of the still open questions of mediæval history. Here alone, in virtue of an accidental anomaly, the subjects which are preliminary and auxiliary to historical research were systematically taught. We have already had occasion to note the effects of this circumstance.[246]

This was the state of affairs when, towards the end of the Second Empire, a vigorous reform movement set in. Some young Frenchmen had visited Germany; they had been struck by the superiority of the German university system over the Napoleonic system of Faculties and special schools. Certainly France, with its defective organisation, had produced many men and many works, but it now began to be held that "in all kinds of enterprises the least possible part should be left to chance," and that "when an institution proposes to train professors of history and historians, it ought to supply them with the means of becoming what it intends them to be."

M. V. Duruy, minister of Public Education, supported the partisans of a renaissance of the higher studies. But he did not think it practicable to interfere, for the purpose either of remodelling, of fusing, or of suppressing them, with the existing institutions,--the Collège de France, the Faculties of Letters, the École normale supérieure, the École des chartes, all of which were consecrated by the services they had rendered, and by the lustre they received from the eminent men who had been, or were, connected with them. He changed nothing, he added. He crowned the somewhat heterogeneous edifice of existing institutions by the creation of an "École pratique des hautes études," which was established at the Sorbonne in 1868.

The École pratique des hautes études (historical and philological section) was intended by those who founded it to prepare young men for research of a scientific character. It was not meant to be subservient to the interests of the professions, and there was to be no popularisation. Students were not to go there to learn the results obtained by science, but, for the same purpose which takes the chemical student to the laboratory, to be initiated into the technical methods by which new results can be obtained. Thus the spirit of the new institution was not without some analogy to that of the primitive tradition of the Collège de France. It was endeavoured to do there, for all the branches of universal history and philology, what had long been done at the École des chartes for the limited domain of French mediæval history.

II. As long as the Faculties of Letters were satisfied to be as they were (that is, without students), and as long as their ambition did not go beyond their traditional functions (the holding of public lectures, the conferring of degrees), the organisation of the higher teaching of the historical sciences in France remained in the condition which we have described. When the Faculties of Letters began to seek a new justification for their existence and new functions, changes became inevitable.

This is not the place to explain why and how the Faculties of Letters were led to desire to work more actively, or rather in other ways than in the past, for the promotion of the historical sciences. M. V. Duruy, in inaugurating the École des hautes études at the Sorbonne, had declared that this young and vigorous plant would thrust asunder the old stones; and, without a doubt, the spectacle of the fruitful activity of the École des hautes études has contributed not a little to awaken the conscience of the Faculties. On the other hand the liberality of the public authorities, which have increased the _personnel_ of the Faculties, which have built palaces for them, and liberally endowed them with the materials required by their work, has imposed new duties on these privileged institutions.

It is about twenty-five years since the Faculties of Letters began to transform themselves, and during this period their progressive transformation has occasioned changes in the whole fabric of the higher teaching of historical science in France, which up to that time had remained unshaken, even by the ingenious addition of 1868.

III. The first care of the Faculties was to provide themselves with students. This was not, to be sure, the main difficulty, for the École normale supérieurs (in which twenty pupils are admitted every year, chosen from among hundreds of candidates) was no longer sufficient for the recruiting of the now numerous body of professors engaged in secondary education. Many young men who had been candidates (along with the pupils of the École normale supérieure) for the degrees which give access to the scholastic profession, were thrown on their own resources. Here was an assured supply of students. At the same time the military laws, by attaching much-prized immunities to the title of _licencié ès lettres_, were calculated to attract to the Faculties, if they prepared students for the licentiate, a large and very interesting class of young men. Lastly, the foreigners (so numerous at the École des hautes études), who come to France to complete their scientific education, and who up to that time were surprised to have no opportunity of profiting by the Faculties, were sure to go to them as soon as they found there something analogous to what they had been accustomed to find in the German universities, and the kind of instruction they wanted.

Before students in any great number could be taught the way to the Faculties, great efforts were necessary and several years passed; but it was after the Faculties obtained the students they desired that the real problems presented themselves for solution.

The great majority of the students in the Faculties of Letters have been originally candidates for degrees, for the licentiate, and for _agrégation_, who entered with the avowed intention of "preparing" for the licentiate and for _agrégation_. The Faculties have not been able to escape the obligation of helping them in this "preparation." But, twenty years ago, examinations were still conceived in accordance with ancient formulæ. The licentiate was an attestation of advanced secondary study, a kind of "higher baccalaureate"; for the _agrégation_ in the classes of history and geography (which became the real _licentia docendi_), the candidates were required to show that they "had a very good knowledge of the subjects they would be charged to teach." Henceforth there was a danger lest the teaching of the Faculties, which must, like that of the École normale supérieure, be preparatory for the examinations for the licentiate and for _agrégation_, should be compelled by the force of circumstances to assume the same character. Note that a certain emulation could not fail to arise between the pupils of the École normale and those of the Faculties in the competitions for _agrégation_. The _agrégation_ programmes being what they were, this emulation seemed likely to have the result of engaging the rival teachers and students more and more in school work, not of a scientific kind, equally devoid of dignity and real utility.

The danger was very serious. It was perceived from the first by those clear-sighted promoters of the reform of the Faculties, MM. A. Dumont, L. Liard, E. Lavisse. M. Lavisse wrote in 1884: "To maintain that the Faculties have for their chief object the preparation for examinations is to substitute drill for scientific culture: this is the serious grievance which able men have against the partisans of innovation.... The partisans of innovation reply that they have seen the drawbacks of the new departure from the beginning, but that they are convinced that a modification of the examination-system will follow the reform of higher education; that a reconciliation will be found between scientific work and the preparation for examinations; and that thus the only grievance their opponents have against them will fall to the ground." It is only doing justice to the foremost champion of reform to acknowledge that he was never tired of insisting on the weak point; and in order to convince oneself that the _examination question_ has always been considered the key-stone of the problem of the organisation of higher education in France, it is only necessary to look through the speeches and the articles entitled "Education and Examinations," "Examinations and Study," "Study and Examinations," &c., which M. Lavisse has collected in his three volumes published at intervals of five years from 1885 onwards: _Questions d'enseignement national, Études et étudiants, A propos de nos écoles._

Thus the question of the reform of the examinations connected with higher education (licentiate, _agrégation_, doctorate) has been placed on the order of the day. It was then in 1884; it is still there in 1897. But, during the interval, visible progress has been made in the direction which we consider the right one, and now a solution seems near.

IV. The old examination-system required candidates for degrees to show that they had received an excellent secondary education. As it condemned those candidates, students receiving higher instruction, to exercises of the same kind as those of which they had already had their fill in the _lycées_, it was a simple matter to attack it. It was defended feebly, and has been demolished.

But how was it to be replaced? The problem was very complex. Is it any wonder that it was not solved at a stroke?

First of all, it was important to come to an agreement on this preliminary question: What are the capacities and what is the knowledge students should be required to give proof of possessing? General knowledge? Technical knowledge and the capacity of doing original research (as at the École des chartes and the École des hautes études)? Pedagogic capacity? It came gradually to be recognised that, considering the great extent and variety of the class from which the students are drawn, it is necessary to draw distinctions.

From candidates for the licentiate it is enough to require that they should give proof of good general culture, permitting them at the same time, if they wish, to show that they have a taste for, and some experience in, original research.

From the candidates for _agrégation_ (_licentia docendi_) who have already obtained the licentiate, there will be required (1) formal proof that they know, by experience, what it is to study an historical problem, and that they have the technical knowledge necessary for such studies; (2) proof of pedagogic capacity, which is a professional necessity for this class.

The students who are not candidates for anything, neither for the licentiate nor for _agrégation_, and who are simply seeking to obtain scientific initiation--the old programmes did not contemplate the existence of such a class of students--will merely be required to prove that they have profited by the tuition and the advice they have received.

This settled, a great stride has been made. For programmes, as we know, regulate study. By virtue of the authority of the programmes historical studies in the Faculties will now have the threefold character which it is desirable that they should have. General culture will not cease to be held in honour. Technical exercises in criticism and research will have their legitimate place. Lastly, pedagogy (theoretical and practical) will not be neglected.

The difficulties begin when it is attempted to determine the tests which, in each department, are the best, that is, the most conclusive. On this subject opinions differ. Though no one now contests the principles, the modes of application which have hitherto been tried or suggested do not meet with unanimous approval. The organisation of the licentiate has been revised three times; the statute relating to the _agrégation_ in history has been reformed or amended five times. And this is not the end. New simplifications are imperative. But what is the importance of this instability--of which, however, complaints begin to be heard[247]--if it is established, as we believe it is, that progress towards a better state of things has been continuous through all these changes, without any notable retrogression?

There is no need to explain here in detail the different transitory systems which have been put into practice. We have had occasion to criticise them elsewhere.[248] Now that most of what we objected to has been abolished, what is the use of reviving old controversies? We shall not even mention the points in which the present system seems to us to be still capable of improvement, for there is reason to hope that it will soon be modified, and in a very satisfactory manner. Let it suffice to say that the Faculties now confer a new diploma, the _Diplôme d'études supérieures_, which all the students have a right to seek, but which the candidates for _agrégation_ are obliged to obtain. This diploma of higher studies, analogous to that of the École des hautes études, the _brevet_ of the École des chartes, and the doctorate in philosophy at the German universities, is given to those students of history who, qualified by a certain academical standing, have passed an examination in which the principal tests are, besides questions on the "sciences" auxiliary to historical research, the composition and the defence of an original monograph. Every one now recognises that "the examination for the diploma of studies will yield excellent fruit, if the vigilance and conscientiousness of examiners maintain it at its proper value."[249]

V. To sum up, the attractions of preparation for degrees have brought the Faculties a host of students. But, under the old system of examinations for the licentiate and for _agrégation_, preparation for degrees was a task which did not harmonise very well with the work which the Faculties deemed suitable for themselves, useful to their pupils, and advantageous to science. The examination-system has therefore been perseveringly reformed, not without difficulty, into conformity with a certain ideal of what the higher teaching of history ought to be. The result is that the Faculties have taken rank among the institutions which contribute to the positive progress of the historical sciences. An enumeration of the works which have appeared under their auspices during the last few years would, if necessary, bear witness to the fact.

This evolution has already produced satisfactory results, and will produce more if it goes on as well as it has begun. To begin with, the transformation of historical instruction in the Faculties has brought about a corresponding transformation at the École normale supérieure. The École normale has also, for two years, been awarding a "_Diplôme d'études_"; original researches, pedagogic exercises, and general culture are encouraged there in the same degree as by the new Faculties. It now differs from the Faculties only in being a close institution, recruited under certain precautions; practically it is a Faculty like the others, but with a small number of select students. Secondly, the École des hautes études and the École des chartes, both of which will be installed at the end of 1897, in the renovated Sorbonne, have still their justification for existence; for many specialists are represented at the École des hautes études which are not, and doubtless never will be, represented in the Faculties; and, in the case of the studies bearing on mediæval history, the body of converging instruction given at the École des chartes will always be incomparable. But the old antagonism between the École des hautes études and the École des chartes on the one hand, and the Faculties on the other, has disappeared. All these institutions, lately so dissimilar, will henceforth co-operate for the purpose of carrying on a common work in a common spirit. Each of these retains its name, its autonomy, and its traditions; but together they form a whole: the historical section of an ideal University of Paris, much vaster than the one which was sanctioned by the law in 1896. Of this "greater" University, the École des chartes, the École des hautes études, the École normale supérieure, and the whole body of historical instruction given by the Faculty of Letters, are now practically so many independent "_instituts_."

INDEX OF PROPER NAMES

Abd-el-Kader, 282

Aimo, 158

Alexander the Great, 272

Alphonse of Poitiers, 227

Altamira, R., 328

Anselme, Père, 303

Ariovistus, 222

Aristophanes, 171

Aristotle, 44

Athenæus, 300

Bacon, Francis, 291

Bancroft, H. H., 19, 20, 22, 31

Barthélemy, Abbé, 301

Bast, F. J., 78

Bédier, J., 85, 112

Bernheim, E., 6, 7, 10, 13, 38, 56, 74, 91, 99, 100, 156, 182, 198, 237, 297

Blanchère, R., de la, 319

Blass, F., 74, 78, 79, 89, 92

Bodin, Jean, 44

Boeckh, A., 107, 152

Böhmer, J. F., 106

Bollandists, Society of, 35

Bonaventura, St., 88, 90

Bouché-Leclercq, A., 158

Boucherie, A., 113

Bourdeau, L., 275

Boutaric, E., 227

Boyce, W. B., 1

Bréquigny, L. G. O. F. de, 106

Broglie, E. de, 29

Brugière de Barante, A. G. P., 301

Brunetière, F., 113

Buchez, P. J. B., 1

Bühler, G., 56

Cæsar, Julius, 44, 194, 197, 218, 220, 222, 245

Cagnat, R., 57

Cantù, C., 311

Carlyle, Thomas, 132, 230, 303

Champollion, F., 48

Charles IX. of France, 168, 186

Chasles, M., 88

Chateaubriand, F. A. de, 72, 301

Chemosh, the god, 212

Chérot, H., 7

Chevalier, U., 5, 7

Chladenius, J. M., 6

Cicero, 44, 108

Cleopatra, 88, 248

Clovis, 158, 220, 223, 301

Cobet, C. C., 78

Coulanges, Fustel de, 1, 9, 10, 64, 140, 144, 148, 149, 150, 158, 170, 215, 216, 230

Cournot, A. A., 246, 249

Cousin, V., 286, 287

Curtius, G., 230, 314

Daniel, Père, 303

Daremberg, C. V., 308

Darius Hystaspes, 151

Daunou, P. C. F., 5, 6, 43, 47, 54, 55

Delisle, L., 23, 97

Deloche, J. E. M., 148

Demosthenes, 171

Dezobry, C. L., 302

Droysen, J. G., 3, 5, 7, 10, 106, 156, 158, 286, 314

Du Cange, C. du F., 105, 136, 148

Dumont, A., 341

Duruy, V., 327, 338, 339

Ebers, G., 301

Edward VI. of England, 249

Egger, E., 108

Eginhard, 94

Ephorus, 298

Eusebius, 298

Feillet, A., 162

Feugère, L., 105, 136

Fisher, H. A. L., 125

Flaubert, G., 5, 32, 304, 319

Flint, R., 2, 6, 8, 285

France, A., 319

Fredegonda, 197

Freeman, E. A., 5, 7, 10, 46

Froissart, Jean, 19

Froude, J. A., 125, 126

Geiger, W., 56

Gellius, Aulus, 300

Georgisch, P., 106

Giannone, Pietro, 104

Gibbon, E., 44

Gilbert, Gustav, 309

Giry, A., 57

Glasson, E., 149

Goethe, J. W. von, 19, 319

Gow, J., 75

Graux, C., 123

Gregory of Corinth, 78

Gregory of Tours, 144, 146, 158, 180, 198, 256

Gröber, G., 57, 310

Grote, G., 183, 310

Grotius, Hugo, 44

Guicciardini, Francesco, 44

Guiraud, P., 230

Hagen, H., 78

Hardouin, Père, 99

Harnack, A., 309

Havet, Julien, 12, 56, 97, 123, 128

Havet, Louis, 12

Hauréau, B., 84, 111, 118, 123

Hegel, G. W. F., 286

Henry VIII. of England, 249

Henry II. of France, 292

Henry, V., 289

Herodotus, 44, 171, 179, 197

Horace, 99

Hoveden, John, 88

Hroswitha, 99

Hugo, Victor, 88, 89

Hume, D., 44

Jaffé, P., 106

Jameson, J. F., 136

Jerome, St., 112

Jesus Christ, 188

Joan of Arc, 188

John, King of England, 187

Jullian, C., 297

Krumbacher, K., 309

Kuhn, E., 56

Lacombe, T., 2, 233, 241, 277, 288

Lamprecht, K., 230, 247, 284, 290, 314

Langlois, Ch. V., 19, 38, 111, 135, 192, 345

Lasch, B., 68

Laurent, F., 285

Lavisse, E., 134, 328, 333, 337, 341, 342

Lavoisier, A. L., 302

Leibnitz, G. W., 121, 122

Lee, Sidney, 308

Le Moyne, Père, 7

Lenglet de Fresnoy, N., 6

Leonardo da Vinci, 88, 89

Liard, L., 335, 341

Lindner, T., 81

Lindsay, W. M., 78, 79, 84

Livy, 44, 178, 180, 233, 297, 298

Locke, John, 44

Loebell, J. W., 180

Lorenz, O., 10

Loudun, the nuns of, 208

Louis VIII. of France, 187

Louis of Granada, 88

Luard, H. R., 98

Luther, Martin, 203

Mably, G. B. De, 43, 44

Macaulay, Lord, 303

Macchiavelli, N., 44

Madvig, J. N., 78

Mariani, L., 4

Marquardt, J., 309

Marselli, N., 2

Mary Magdalene, St., 88

Mary, Queen, 249

Matthew of Paris, 98

Matthew of Westminster, 97

Mayr, J. von, 274

Mérimée, P., 301

Mesha Inscription, the, 212

Meusel, H., 148

Meyer, E., 158

Meyer, P., 29

Mézeray, F. E. de, 298

Michelet, J., 230, 271, 286, 287, 301, 303, 327, 336

Möller, W., 309

Mommsen, T., 108, 118, 230, 286, 309, 314

Monod, G., 100, 144, 297, 302

Montesquieu, C. de S., 44, 257, 284, 299

Montfaucon, Père Bernard de, 29

Montgomery, Gabriel de, 292

Mortet, Ch. and V., 11

Mourin, E., 302

Müller, I. von, 56, 74, 310

Mylaeus, 6

Napoleon I., 26, 282

Newton, Isaac, 302

Niebuhr, B. G., 158, 182

Nietzsche, F., 319

Nitzsch, C. W., 180

Oncken, W., 311

Orosius, 298

Ossian, 91

Otto I., 175

Paris, G., 309

Patrizzi, Francesco, 6

Pattison, Mark, 115

Paul, H., 75, 310

Pauly, A., 308

Pausanias, 74

Peckham, John, 88

Peiresc, N. F. C. de, 22

Pflugk-Harttung, J. von, 10, 130

Philippi, A., 129

Piaget, A., 91

Pisistratus, 207

Plato, 153

Plutarch, 44, 297

Polybius, 44, 279, 297

Potthast, A., 106

Prou, M., 57

Ranke, L., 140, 286

Raynal, J., 44

Reinach, S., 75, 79

Renan, E., 9, 29, 30, 40, 105, 114, 119, 122, 132, 134, 183

Retz, Cardinal de, 44, 162, 169

Rilliet, A., 162

Robertson, J. M., 115, 241

Robertson, W., 44

Rocholl, R., 285

Rousseau, J. J., 44

Rulhière, C. C. de, 44

Saglio, E., 308

Saint-Simon, C. H. de, 251

Sallust, 44

Sanchoniathon, 91

Schiller, J. C. F. von, 162

Schlosser, F. C., 311

Schoemann, G. F., 309

Séguier, J. F., 109

Seignobos, Ch., 11, 66, 196, 257, 333, 334

Seneca, 78

Sforza, Ludovico, 282

Sickel, T. von, 56

Simmel, G., 217

Smedt, Père de, 10, 156, 207, 254

Spencer, Herbert, 287

Stephen, Leslie, 308

Stubbe, W., 10

Suetonius, 94

Suger, Abbot, 170

Suidas, 158

Sully, M., 169

Surville, Clotilde de, 91

Tacitus, 44, 141, 144, 171, 177, 194, 233, 256

Taine, H. A., 140, 143, 247, 286

Tardif, A., 5, 7, 156

Taylor, J., 75

Thierry, Augustin, 98, 140, 230, 259, 265, 301, 302, 303

Thomas, A., 73

Thucydides, 19, 44, 158, 183, 197, 297

Tobler, A., 75

Tschudi, J. H., 162, 171

Turenne, H. de la T. d'A., 162

Vercingetorix, 88

Vergil, 84, 99

Vertot, R. A. de, 44

Villemarqué, H. de, 181

Vincent de Paul, St. 326

Voltaire, F. M. A. de, 44, 299

Vrain-Lucas, 88

Waitz, G., 110, 118

Wallace, A. R., 207

Waltzing, J. P., 108

Wattenbach, W., 73

Wauters, A. C., 106

Weber, G., 311

Wegele, F. X. von, 122, 297

Wendover, Roger de, 98

Wissowa, G., 308

Wittekind, 175

Wright, T., 84

Xenophon, 44

Zumpt, A. W., 108

FOOTNOTES:

[1] W. B. Boyce, "Introduction to the Study of History, Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Literary," London, 1894, 8vo.

[2] For example, P. J. B. Buches, in his _Introduction à la science de l'histoire_, Paris, 1842, 2 vols. 8vo.

[3] The history of the attempts which have been made to understand and explain philosophically the history of humanity has been undertaken, as is well known, by Robert Flint. Mr. Flint has already given the history of the Philosophy of History in French-speaking countries: "Historical Philosophy in France and French Belgium and Switzerland," Edinburgh and London, 1893, 8vo. It is the first volume of the expanded re-edition of his "History of the Philosophy of History in Europe," published twenty-five years ago. Compare the retrospective (or historical) part of the work of N. Marselli, _La scienza della storia_, i., Torino, 1873.

The most important original work which has appeared in France since the publication of the analytical repertory of R. Flint is that of P. Lacombe, _De l'histoire considérée comme science_, Paris, 1894, 8vo. Cf. _Revue Critique_, 1895, i. p. 132.

[4] _Revue Critique d'histoire et de littérature_, 1892, i. p. 164.

[5] _Revue Critique d'histoire et de littérature_, 1888, ii. p. 295. Cf. _Le Moyen Age_, x. (1897), p. 91: "These books [treatises on historical method] are seldom read by those to whom they might be useful, amateurs who devote their leisure to historical research; and as to professed scholars, it is from their masters' lessons that they have learnt to know and handle the tools of their trade, leaving out of consideration the fact that the method of history is the same as that of the other sciences of observation, the gist of which can be stated in a few words.

[6] In accordance with the principle that historical method can only be taught by example, L. Mariani has given the humorous title _Corso pratico di metodologia della storia_ to a dissertation on a detail in the history of Fermo. See the _Archivio della Società romana di storia patria_, xiii. (1890), p. 211.

[7] See an account of Freeman's work, "The Methods of Historical Study," in the _Revue Critique_, 1887, i. p. 376. This work, says the critic, is empty and commonplace. We learn from it "that history is not so easy a study as many fondly imagine, that it has points of contact with all the sciences, and that the historian truly worthy of the name ought to know everything; that historical certitude is unattainable, and that, in order to make the nearest approach to it, it is necessary to have constant recourse to the original sources; that it is necessary to know and use the best modern historians, but never to take their word for gospel. That is all." He concludes: Freeman "without a doubt taught historical method far better by example than he ever succeeded in doing by precept."

Compare _Bouvard et Pécuchet_, by G. Flaubert. Here we have two simpletons who, among other projects, propose to write history. In order to help them, one of their friends sends them (p. 156) "rules of criticism taken from the _Cours_ of Daunou," such as: "It is no proof to appeal to rumour and common opinion; the witnesses cannot appear. Reject impossibilities: Pausanias was shown the stone swallowed by Saturn. Keep in mind the skill of forgers, the interest of apologists and calumniators." Daunou's work contains a number of truisms quite as obvious, and still more comic than the above.

[8] Flint (ibid. p. 15) congratulates himself on not having to study the literature of _Historic_, for "a very large portion of it is so trivial and superficial that it can hardly ever have been of use even to persons of the humblest capacity, and may certainly now be safely confined to kindly oblivion." Nevertheless, Flint has given in his book a summary list of the principal works of this kind published in French-speaking countries from the earliest times. A more general and complete account (though still a summary one) of the literature of this subject in all countries is furnished by the _Lehrbuch der historischen Methode_ of E. Bernheim (Leipzig, 1894, 8vo), pp. 143 _sqq._ Flint (who was acquainted with several works unknown to Bernheim) stops at 1893, Bernheim at 1894. Since 1889 the _Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft_ have contained a periodical account of recent works on historical methodology.

[9] This seventh volume was published in 1844. But Daunou's celebrated _Cours_ was delivered at the Collège de France in the years 1819-30.

[10] The Italians of the Renaissance (Mylæns, Francesco Patrizzi, and others), and after them the writers of the last two centuries, ask what is the relation of history to dialectic and rhetoric; to how many laws the historical branch of literature is subject; whether it is right for the historian to relate treasons, acts of cowardice, crimes, disorders; whether history is entitled to use any style other than the sublime; and so on. The only books on _Historic_, published before the nineteenth century, which give evidence of any original effort to attack the real difficulties, are those of Lenglet de Fresnoy (_Méthode pour étudier l'histoire_, Paris, 1713), and of J. M. Chladenius (_Allgemeine Geschichtswissenschaft_, Leipzig, 1752). The work of Chladenius has been noticed by Bernheim (ibid. p. 166).

[11] He has not always shown even good sense, for, in the _Cours d'études historiques_ (vii. p. 105), where he treats of a work, _De_ _l'histoire_, published in 1670 by Père Le Moyne, a feeble production, to say the least, bearing evident traces of senility, he expresses himself as follows: "I cannot adopt all the maxims and precepts contained in this treatise; but I believe that, after that of Lucian, it is the best we have yet seen, and I greatly doubt whether any of those whose acquaintance we have still to make has risen to the same height of philosophy and originality." Père H. Chérot has given a sounder estimate of the treatise _De l'histoire_ in his _Étude sur la vie et les oeuvres du P. Le Moyne_ (Paris, 1887, 8vo), pp. 406 _sqq._

[12] Bernheim declares, however (ibid. p. 177), that this little work is, in his opinion, the only one which stands at the present level of science.

[13] Flint says very well (ibid. p. 15): "The course of Historic has been, on the whole, one of advance from commonplace reflection on history towards a philosophical comprehension of the conditions and processes on which the formation of historical science depends.

[14] By P. Guiraud, in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, March 1896, p. 75.

[15] Renan has said some of the truest and best things that have ever been said on the historical sciences in _L'Avenir de la science_ (Paris, 1890, 8vo), written in 1848.

[16] Some of the most ingenious, some of the most logical, and some of the most widely applicable observations, on the method of the historical sciences, have so far appeared, not in books on methodology, but in the reviews--of which the _Revue Critique d'histoire et de littérature_ is the type--devoted to the criticism of new works of history and erudition. It is a very useful exercise to run through the file of the _Revue Critique_, founded, at Paris, in 1867, "to enforce respect for method, to execute justice upon bad books, to check misdirected and superfluous work."

[17] The first edition of the _Lehrbuch_ is dated 1889.

[18] The best work that has hitherto been published (in French) on historical method is a pamphlet by MM. Ch. and V. Mortet, _La Science de l'histoire_ (Paris, 1894, 8vo), 88 pp., extracted from vol. xx. of the _Grande Encyclopédie_.

[19] One of us, M. Seignobos, proposes to publish later on a complete treatise of Historical Methodology, if there appears to be a public for this class of work.

[20] It cannot be too often stated that the study of history, as it is prosecuted at school, does not presuppose the same aptitudes as the same study when prosecuted at the university or in after life. Julien Havet, who afterwards devoted himself to the (critical) study of history, found history wearisome at school. "I believe," says M. L. Havet, "that the teaching of history [in schools] is not organised in such a manner as to provide sufficient nourishment for the scientific spirit.... Of all the studies comprised in our school curricula, history is the only one in which the pupil is not being continually called upon to verify something. When he is learning Latin or German, every sentence in a translation requires him to verify a dozen different rules. In the various branches of mathematics the results are never divorced from their proofs; the _problems_, too, compel the pupil to think through the whole for himself. Where are the _problems_ in history, and what schoolboy is ever trained to gain by independent effort an insight into the interconnection of events?" (_Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes_, 1896, p. 84).

[21] M. Langlois wrote Book I., Book II. as far at Chapter VI., the second Appendix, and this Preface; M. Seignobos the end of Book II.,