Page:Philosophical Review Volume 31.djvu/625

611 No. 6.] REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 6ll on the completion of the wide circle, this drawing forth of it from the limits of the first treatment of the subject, was the most natural conclusion that could be given to the whole work" (p. 6). The book falls into two parts: the first, with ten chapters or sections and three shorter "Appendices," dealing with the theory of History; and the second, with eight chapters, dealing with Historiography. The second part illustrates by a historical survey the influence of historical theories upon the actual form of writing history at various times, and so tends to illustrate and make concrete the author's theoretical conclusions.

There are two propositions that at once attract attention on taking up this volume: first, that all true history is contemporary history, and second, that history is thought and as such, philosophy, the only genuine philosophy. These may be regarded as the central theses of the work around which the whole discussion revolves and of which the other conclusions are deductions or further elaborations and qualifications. Croce, as is well known, is a literary artist of rare quality, gifted with insight and imagination. There is scarcely a dull page in the book and one is swept along by the brilliancy and suggestiveness of his writing and only on a second reading feels inclined to assume a critical attitude in regard to his theories. Indeed, even if in the end it has to be maintained that certain assumptions can not be accepted without qualification or that certain conclusions have been asserted rather than established, one has still to acknowledge himself as the author's debtor for valuable instruction and suggestion.

By history Croce means both the actual process of living and the activity that in the life of the spirit is inseparable from this, of interpreting or bringing the reality lived to self-consciousness. History is not a product, but the process of development itself and lives the life of the spirit. Its centre and life is in the present, and there is no past except what is connected with and springs from the problems of the present. The past as something that is dead and gone is abstract and transcedent an unmeaning 'thing-in-itself.' This enables us to understand the distinction between true history and chronicle, which once indeed was alive and may yet live again. "Thus great tracts of history which are now chronicle for us, many documents now mute, will in their turn be traversed with new flashes of life and will speak again. These revivals have altogether interior motives, and no wealth of documents or of narratives will bring them about; indeed, it is they themselves that copiously collect and