MODERN LITERATURES IN EDUCATION. 401 



the persons, circumstances, and problems of his time! how far less 

 likely are these to be forgotten, how much more vividly must they 

 come before us, if connected with the thoughts of a great man, than if 

 learned in the bare lines of a history ! Or, to come to a still more 

 special example, the " Areopagitica " opens out into a world of inqui- 

 ries respecting the growth of freedom of speech in England, to enter 

 upon which is certainly no superficial thing. Milton is, no doubt, ex- 

 ceptional among authors for the closeness of his connection with the 

 total life of his country. But Schiller, from his ardent patriotism, 

 would not come far behind him ; and even in the more artistic Goethe 

 many links of the kind could be found. 



By nothing which is said here is there intended to be implied the 

 slightest disparagement of the examinations in law and philosophy at 

 Oxford and Cambridge, or the least idea that it is possible to supply 

 their place by a more general examination in modern literatures. Law 

 and philosophy, like science, are subjects that cannot be studied other- 

 wise than on their own basis ; they demand a stringent rigidity of 

 consecutive reasoning that is wholly alien from the wide knowledge 

 and free play of the mind that deals with literatures, whether ancient 

 or modern ; moreover, the treatment of them cannot be limited to 

 modern times, deriving, as they do, their origin, the one from Greece, 

 the other from Rome. But history stands on a different ground ; and 

 that it is felt so to stand may be seen by the difficulty which has lately 

 been experienced at Cambridge in assigning a place to modern history 

 among the other studies. A few years ago it was united in an incon- 

 gruous tie with metaphysics, political economy, and jurisprudence ; 

 now, by a decision which certainly cannot be thought unwise, it has 

 dropped out of this connection ; but, though it has sought admission 

 in many quarters, it is up to this day excluded from the honor exami- 

 nations of the university. And the reason is clear. Pure historical 

 study does not try the intellect very deeply; the subjects with which 

 it deals are so various that it cannot bestow on any of them more than 

 a somewhat superficial glance. There are, of course, special kinds of 

 history that may go deeply into special subjects, of which Hallam's 

 work is an example ; but these, by the very fact of their being special, 

 are narrow ; nor is it possible to make of any of them a backbone 

 whereto the immense number of topics comprised in an ordinary his- 

 tory, geography, military service, the personal character of statesmen, 

 theological disputes, artistic progress, etc., would naturally attach 

 themselves. The authors of a nation are the natural centre of the his- 

 tory of the nation. To know a man it is necessary to hear what he 

 says with his own mouth, as well as what others have to record about 

 him ; and in the same way the history of a nation is an insufficient 

 means of getting acquainted with that nation, unless it be supple- 

 mented by that more intimate acquaintance implied in a knowledge of 

 its authors. 



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