Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/124

* HISTORY. 108 HISTORY. in the monasteries, which were very little more tlian diaries fruiii day lo day, kept without any disiriniination by men whose outlook upon the world was nf the narrowest. Kinhard, in the reij,ni of Charknui-rne, Otto of Freising, in that of l-'rederick Uarharossa. and a few others, alone rise a little above the dead level, which olFers material for historical research, but no true history. The awakening of a broader and more vigorous scholarship in the period of the Renais- sance produced a new schoi I of political and historical thinkers, who buiK upon the revived classical models. They are found in Italy, where Machiavelli and (iuicciarilini wrote historical works that are admirable in thought and style, and in France, Spain, and England, where the e.vample of Italy was followed as in other fields of culture. In the eighteentu century the Eng- lishman Gibbon, who devoted his life to his great work. The Decline and Fall of the Homan Em- pire, left one of the masterpieces of historical scholarship — a work that stands to-day as the most thorough and scholarly presentation of the history of the later Empire and of the Middle Ages. Voltaire, Hume, ^Iimtesf|uieu, and Rohert- .son are brilliant names in the progress of his- torical thought of the same century. It re- mained, however, for the nineteenth century to develop history into a systematic science. With Niebuhr began a rational study of classical his- tory, which has been carried on by Mommsen anil Curtius for Roman and Greek history re- spectively. The greatest impulse, however, for the studv came from the classrooms of Leopold von Ranke ( 17n.5- 188(5 ) . Ranke grasped the fundamental idea of historical science with a rugged sincerity, both of theory and practice, and impressed his spirit upon a large body of enthusiastic students in Germany and America. Waitz, Droysen, von Sybel, von Hoist. Trcitschke, and others have followed with greater or less ability along the path over which he led the way. In France within the last half century historical work and instriiction have developed with great rapidity, and Monod. Duruy, Henri Martin. Lavisse. Rambaud. and many others have exemplified the French genius for clear and scien- tific thinking, and for condensed lucidity of state- ment. In less degree the other Continental countries have contributed to the development of the science. In England, along with such brilliant literary historians as Macaulay, Kings- ley, and Froude. we have a body of eminent scientific scholars, of whom Freeman. Green, Stuhbs, Creighton. and Gardiner are distin- guished representatives. In America, whose scholars have drawn largely from thS German and French schools, there has also been a notice- able development in historical wTiting and in critical scholarship. .'^ueceeding the earlier school, which included Bancroft, Prescott, and Motley, there has grown tip in the I'nited .States a modem school, trained in the best imiversity methods of research, and enrolling in different kinds of historical work hundreds of vigorous and enthusiastic scholars. Francis Parkman, Justin Winsor, and .John Fiske left behind them a body of historical writings of a very high order. Henry Adams. James Schoulcr, Captain Mahan, .John Bach McMaster. and .Tames Ford Rhodes are contemporary .American historians whose studies in the history of their own countrj- are of permanent value, and many more names might be added. From the lecture rooms and semi- naries of Europe and -Vmerica a constant impulse to wise and thorough study and use of hif.torical material goes forth from earnest and able teach- ers. Numerous periodicals are devoted to the ad- vancement of historical research. Most note- worthy of these arc the Ilistorischc Zeitschrift in Germany, the Keviie Ilistoriquc in France, the English Historical llcricw in England, and the American Uinlorical Uevicw in the United btates. It is the tendency of the modem school of historical students to rely more upon the thor- ough study of true sources of history, rejecting the myths, traditions, and second-hand acc<mnts. which have so often formed much of the material of writers of so-called history. Collections of writ- ten sources form a very considerable part of the historical publications of to-day, and guides and commentaries to these collections of sources are constantly being issued to enable the student to tind his way intelligently through the mass of material which the source collections present. In this direction Germany, under the leadership of Ranke, led the way. The massive and con- stantly growing collection of sources of Ger- man history, known as the "Monumenta Ger- mania^ llistorica," is in itself a monument of scholarship and research, and in France, Eng- land, and the I'nited .States similar collections have been published, and are in process of publi- cation from year to year. The well-known Rolls Scries in England is nearly as notable a cullection as the (iernian Monumenta. Even in historical instruction in the schools, the simpler and more interesting sources have been put in available form for elementary' students, and are used with great success to enliven the nistorical narrative, and to give an appreciation of the true nature of historical research. This tendency to explore the actual evidence critically has done much to clear history of the fables, myths, and traditions which made nuich of it imrcliable, and to render it real lo the stmlent. Divisions of History. History is commonly divided chronologically into three great periods — Ancient, Mediieval, and Modern. While there is complete continuity in the course of history, each one of these periods has certain character- istics distinguishing it from the others, and mak- ing it convenient to treat each as a unit. In th>> first period the beginning and growth and de- cline of the great civilizations of antiquity are comprised. Here arc considered the old East, Egj-pt, Mesopotamia, and Syria, Greece, and Rome. In these remote ages were laid the foun- dations of civilization, the elements of which were handed on from the valleys of the Xile and Euphrates to the Greeks and Romans, who fashioned them into instruments available for later generations. The Roman Empire welded together all the diverse elements of the ancient world. Ancient history is usually regarded as ending when the irruption of the Germanic bar- barians from Northern and Central Europe into (he highly develo|K-d Roman civilization caused the downfall of the old Empire in the fifth century of our era, and ushered in several cen- turies of confusion. The world that had been so thoroughly organized by the Roman was ma- terially modified in its structure by the individu- alism for which the Germ.in stood, in contra- distinction to the principle of imperial unity