Page:The study of history in Holland and Belgium (IA studyofhistoryin00frrich).pdf/34



It can scarcely be said that advanced study of history exists in Belgium. This science, cultivated and honored as it is abroad, is by the Belgian law relegated to the course in philosophy; that is to say, history is studied in our universities only by students of the first year, who are generally very ill prepared and who for the most part are in haste to go through the Faculties of arts and philosophy as quickly as possible in order to begin law. Even the few pupils who do not leave the department at the end of several months and who are studying for a doctorate in philosophy, never hear history spoken of except incidentally in the courses in literature or languages and in lectures on Greek antiquities.

This neglect of history during the years devoted to the doctorate in philosophy is one of the most shocking absurdities of our miserable law. It is hard to see what motive could have guided the legislator, if indeed the question so much as presented itself to him.

The teaching of history in the philosophical course is of necessity elementary. It comprises, moreover, only general courses in ancient history (Greek and Roman), history of the Middle Ages, modern history and, since Easter, 1880, contemporary history. Besides this, tradition establishes that the