II50WMAN] FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES IN HISTORICAL SCIENCE 497 



The supporters of the method name two requirements: — 



1. History as a science should not stop at, or sink into, 

 uncertainty and scepticism, but must supply assured knowledge: 

 "In the historical method there are two difficulties (one in the material 

 and the other in our understanding) which may give rise to doubts as 

 to the possibility of sure results and have indeed repeatedly caused 

 serious scepticism concerning the 'certainty of history.' These 

 doubts dare not be left undiscussed, for it is one of the most essential 

 characteristics of all science that it supplies assured knowledge." — 

 Bernheim, Lehrbuch, p. 189. 



2. History should not stop at, or sink into, mere collections of 

 historical material. Its ultimate object is to synthesize these materials 

 into trustworthy, organized, and literary narratives, without which 

 the material will remain, even to the expert, only a discontinuous in- 

 coherent mass: "We cannot help using the narrative as our primary 

 authority, and our other sources of knowledge as something sub- 

 sidiary. The narrative is commonly continuous; if it does not tell us 

 the whole tale, it at least tells us the tale as a whole. The documents 

 and other sources of knowledge are for the most part not continuous; 

 they come in only now and then; the knowledge that they give us is 

 piecemeal." — Freeman, Methods of Historical Study (1886), p. 170. 



Of these requirements the 1st is the chief general requirement of 

 historical, in common with all other, science; and the 2nd is the chief 

 specific requirement of historical science in particular. The fulfil- 

 ment of the 2nd depends upon the fulfilment of the 1st because no 

 histoxian can formulate a trustworthy synthetic narrative of events 

 concerning which he has no assured knowledge. 



The fulfilment of the 1st requirement by the prevailing method 

 will be tested from two stand-points, (a) a comprehensive experimental 

 application of the method to an extensive field of history, and (b) 

 the general attitude of representative books of method towards his- 

 torical certainty and the success of the method in general in forestalling 

 or overcoming scepticism. 



(a) Comprehensive experimental application of the present method. 

 Professor Fling of the department of history in the University of Ne- 

 braska is himself the author of an Outline of Historical Method (1899) 

 with the thorough knowledge which must come from such author- 

 ship and from long experience as an instructor. He thinks so 

 highly of the method that he believes the teaching of it even in sec- 

 ondary schools is of more importance to the pupils than historical 

 information in itself. For this reason he published the Source Book 

 of Greek History (1907) previously mentioned, and gave a "specific 

 illustration" of its use in the History Teacher's Magazine (September, 



Sec. I and II. 1916—33 



