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nydus/Introduction to the Study of HistoryPublic
Page 397 of 400
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HISTORY

  1. [231] We have spoken above of the element of subjectivity which it is impossible to eliminate from historical construction, and which has been misinterpreted to the extent of denying history the character of a science: this element of subjectivity which troubled Pécuchet (G. Flaubert, Bouvard et Pécuchet, p. 157) and Sylvestre Bonnard (A. France, Le crime de Silvestre Bonnard, p. 310), and which causes Faust to say: "Die Zeiten der Vergangenheit Sind uns ein Buch mit sieben Siegeln. Was ihr den Geist der Zeiten heisst, Das ist im Grund der Herren eigner Geist, In dem die Zeiten sich bespiegeln." ["Past times are to us a book with seven seals. What you call the spirit of the times is at bottom your own spirit, in which the times are mirrored."—Goethe, Faust, i. 3.]
  2. [232] A saying attributed to a "Sorbonne professor" by M. de la Blanchère (Revue Critique, 1895, i. p. 176). Others have declaimed on the theme that the knowledge of history is mischievous and paralyses. See F. Nietzsche, Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen, II. Nutzen und Nachtheil der Historie für das Leben, Leipzig, 1874, 8vo.
  3. [233] History and the social sciences are mutually dependent on each other; they progress in parallel lines by a continual interchange of services. The social sciences furnish a knowledge of the present, required by history for the purpose of making representations of the facts and reasoning from documents. History gives the information about evolutions which is necessary in order to understand the present.
  4. [234] The same institution has been adopted in German-speaking countries under the name of Leitfaden (guiding-thread), and in English-speaking countries under the name of Text-book.
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