Page:The processes of history (IA processesofhisto01tegg).pdf/32

  as well as to 'advanced' groups; it must apply equally to all periods of history in all lands; it must apply, furthermore, to the 'backward' and 'advanced' members of all groups, and hence to the experience of the individual in the world today.

4. The number and variety of the theories which have heretofore been advanced should be convincing proof that in approaching a problem of this magnitude we must first endeavor to artive at a clear understanding of the method to be followed in conducting the inquiry. There can be no question that the investigation before us must rest upon an examination of the facts of human history, for we ourselves are aware that any present situation in which we may happen to be involved is the outcome of what has gone before. But the practical problem with which we are confronted appears only when we come to ask how the concrete facts of history are to be utilized in order to explain the status of man as we find him everywhere throughout the world.

During the nineteenth century, and indeed up to the present, the student of history has carried on his work in accordance with the assumption that such an explanation would be afforded by a