Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/7

 PREFACE

The practice of studying documents in connection with the history courses given in American universities, colleges, and high schools has now become so general, and the results attained so satisfactory, that the method no longer requires any defence. With the introduction of the system has come a new kind of manual, the document book. So many excellent books of this description have already appeared that the editor of still another may be reasonably expected to offer an adequate explanation for its publication.

Three considerations have induced me to prepare this volume. The first of these is personal and local. For several years past I have made a practice of dividing my class in modern European history into small sections which I could meet once each week around the seminary table. At these meetings we have studied together a considerable part of the documents here included, but the work has been hampered by the lack of a convenient collection of the documents. Fidelity to the interest of my pupils seemed to impose upon me the obligation to remove this difficulty. The second consideration lies in the attractiveness of the documents. After considerable experience in the use of various classes of documents upon European history I have reached the conclusion that students find the modern French documents more attractive than any others. Doubtless the chief reasons for this preference are that modern documents are more easily comprehended than those of more remote periods and that the style of the French is superior to that of English and German documents. Since documentary study must usually be confined to a small part of the field traversed by a class, I believe that for classes in modern European history the preference of the students may well be allowed to control the selection of the period to be studied. The third consideration is the importance of the field covered. The history of France since the beginning of the revolution surely deserves a volume in English presenting as large a proportion as possible of the important documents.

The task of selecting the documents for a book of this description is a difficult one. It may be safely asserted that no two persons would make the same selections, however well