Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/229

 Volume XI I ' January, igoj _Ahiniber 2 %mim Mistotital %^mm RELIGION STILL THE KEY TO HISTORY' THERE are three men in the world whose daily doings and say- ings especially interest it:— the Emperor William, President Roosevelt, and the Pope of Rome. Two command public attention by the union of great official powers with strong native faculties of mind and will. The third commands it almost purely from his official character. He governs no territory, although his authority is daily felt in the remotest quarters of the globe and he holds a court to which great nations send ambassadors. In the sphere where he does bear rule, he has evinced no faculty of individual initiative He has no force of speech, no power of the pen. The son of a simple peasant, his greatness consists in his headship of a vener- able and world-wide church, and in his thus standing, more than any other man, as the representative of a great religion. Lamprecht tells us that history is " an sich nichts als angewandte Psychologic." To this extent certainly the epigram rings true that history can never neglect to take into account whatever psycho- logical forces move peoples or actuate leaders of peoples. Such a force has always been found, is still found, in religion. It is one of those — vague, impulsive, constant in play, inconstant in in- tensity — which deny to the historical student the power of scien- tific prediction. Ours is an age of more reverence for human reason and less reverence for human authority. But as reverence for human au- thority becomes less, a conviction deepens that men are subject to a power greater than themselves. We may call it Nature, or call it God. What we know is that it speaks by laws — invariable laws. What we feel is that it is a thing of mystery ; — too great to be meas- ' Annual Address of the President of the American Historical Association, delivered December 26, 1906. AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XII. — 15. ( 219 )