Page:The study of history in Holland and Belgium (IA studyofhistoryin00frrich).pdf/33

 Such is, I think, the true course, which it is necessary to accept boldly. To wait amiably till the House has acquired a precise idea of the scientific needs of advanced study is to lose precious time and to expect the impossible. The universities must be helped by the professors themselves, not by fatally incompetent legislators, whose votes are often more to be dreaded than to be desired.

In Belgium the professors of history are impressed witli this truth. They have created practical courses which have raised the level of historical teaching. I am convinced that it will be the saine in Holland, if the good example of M. Blok at Groningen is followed in the three remaining universities. In the course of the last two years, even in the very heart of the Faculty of Arts at Leyden and Groningen, there has appeared a phenomenon which seems to augur a better future for the scientific study of history: at Leyden there have been two doctors in Germanic philology, and at Groningen a third, who have treated historical subjects in their doctor's theses. The creation of practical courses in history seems thus to be inevitable.