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nydus/Introduction to the Study of HistoryPublic
Page 383 of 400
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HISTORY

  1. [174] It is hardly possible to study here the special difficulties which arise in the application of these principles, as when the author, wishing to conceal his indebtedness, has introduced deviations in order to put his readers off the scent, or when the author has combined statements taken from different documents.
  2. [175] Here we merely indicate the principle of the method of confirmation; its applications would require a very lengthy study.
  3. [176] Père de Smedt has devoted to this question a part of his Principes de la critique histoire (Paris, 1887, 12mo).
  4. [177] The solution of the question is different in the case of the sciences of direct observation, especially the biological sciences. Science knows nothing of the possible and the impossible; it only recognises facts which have been correctly or incorrectly observed: facts which had been declared impossible, as the existence of aerolites, have been discovered to be genuine. The very notion of a miracle is metaphysical; it implies a conception of the universe as a whole which transcends the limits of observation. (See Wallace, "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism.")
  5. [178] See above, p. 194.
  6. [179] In the experimental sciences an hypothesis is a form of question accompanied by a provisional answer.
  7. [180] Fustel de Coulanges saw the necessity of this. In the preface to his Recherches sur quelques problêmes d'histoire (Paris, 1885, 8vo) he announces his intention of presenting his researches "in the form which all my works have, that is, in the form of questions which I ask myself, and on which I endeavour to throw light."
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