igii.] ROBINSON— THE NEW HISTORY. 189 



have little resemblance to the fable convenne which is currently ac- 

 cepted as embodying the elements of history. 



History in its broadest sense, is, in short, nothing less than the 

 experiences of our race, so far as we can determine or surmise them. 

 And what uses are we to make of the experiences of the race? The 

 same kind of use that we make of our own individual history. We 

 may question it as we question our memory of our personal acts, 

 situations and past ideals. But those things that we recall from the 

 superabundant fund of our own experiences vary continually with our 

 moods and preoccupations. We instinctively adjust our recollec- 

 tions to our immediate needs and aspirations and ask from the past 

 light on the particular problems that face us. Just as our individual 

 history is thus not immutable but owes its value to its adap- 

 tability, so with the history of mankind. As Maeterlinck has beauti- 

 fully said, with increased insight, ''historic facts which seem to 

 be graven forever on the stone and bronze of the past will assume 

 an entirely different aspect, will return to life and leap into move- 

 ment, bringing vaster and more courageous counsels." History is 

 then not fixed and reducible to outlines and formulas but it is 

 ever alive and ever changing, and it will, if we will but permit it, 

 illuminate and explain our lives as nothing else can do. For our 

 lives, are made up almost altogether of the past and each age should 

 be free to select from the annals of the past those matters which 

 have a bearing on the matters it has specially at heart. 



K we test our personal knowledge of history by its usefulness 

 to us, in giving us a better grasp on the present and a clearer notion 

 of our place in the development of mankind, we shall perceive forth- 

 with that a great part of what we have learned from historical works 

 has entirely escaped our memory, for the simple reason that we have 

 never had the least excuse for recollecting it. The career of Ethel- 

 red the Unready, the battle of Poitiers, and the negotiations leading up 

 to the treaty of Nimwegen are for most of us forgotten formula, no 

 more helpful, except in a remote contingency, than the logarithm 

 of the number 57. The ideal history for each of us would be those 

 facts of past human experience to which we should have recourse 

 oftenest to our endeavors to understand ourselves and our fellows. 

 No one account would meet the needs of all. but all would agree 



