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nydus/Introduction to the Study of HistoryPublic
Page 373 of 400
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HISTORY

  1. [136] The theory and an example of this procedure will be found in Fustel de Coulanges, Recherches sur quelques problêmes d'histoire (pp. 189-289), with reference to the statements of Tacitus about the Germans. See especially pp. 263-89, the discussion of the celebrated passage on the German mode of culture.
  2. [137] Fustel de Coulanges formulates it thus: "It is never safe to separate two words from their context; this is just the way to mistake their meaning" (Monarchie franque, p. 228, note I).
  3. [138] This is how Fustel de Coulanges condemns this practice: "I am not speaking of pretenders to learning who quote second-hand, and at most take the trouble to verify whether the phrase they have seen quoted really occurs in the passage indicated. To verify quotations is one thing and to read texts quite another, and the two often lead to opposite results" (Revue des questions historiques, 1887, vol. i.). See also (L'Alleu et le domaine rural, pp. 171-98) the lesson given to M. Glasson on the theory of the community of land: forty-five quotations are studied in the light of their context, with the object of proving that none of them bears the meaning M. Glasson attributed to it. We may also compare the reply: Glasson, Les Communaux et le domaine rural a l'époque franque, Paris, 1890.
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