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nydus/Introduction to the Study of HistoryPublic
Page 340 of 400
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HISTORY

  1. [22] In practice one does not as a rule resolve to treat a point of history before knowing whether there are or are not documents in existence which enable it to be studied. On the contrary, it is the accidental discovery of a document which suggests the idea of thoroughly elucidating the point of history to which it relates, and thus leads to the collection, for this purpose, of other documents of the same class.
  2. [23] It is pitiable to see how the best of the early scholars struggled bravely, but vainly, to solve problems which would not even have existed for them if their collections had not been so incomplete. This lack of material was a disadvantage for which the most brilliant ingenuity could not compensate.
  3. [24] "How hard it is to gain the means whereby we mount to the sources" (Goethe, Faust, i. 3).
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