HISTORY, ITS NATURE AND METHODS. 



The subject on which I have undertaken to address you this even- 

 ing — History, its Nature and its Methods — will, I fear seem rather an 

 ambitious one to have been chosen by any one but a professed and ex- 

 perienced historical scholar. I am fully aware of my inability to do any- 

 thing like full justice to it, but I venture to hope that, short of that, I 

 may be able to present some aspects of it to you in a not uninteresting 

 or unprofitable light. 



Two Sections of this Society, as all here are aware, are devoted to 

 history and literature, one dealing with these subjects as presented in 

 the French, and the other as presented in the English language. But 

 while the scientific sections of the Society, hold a domain into which 

 but few literary men are competent to enter, there is no exclusion of any 

 thoughtful and educated man from the fields of literature and history; 

 and, while I may perhaps rely on this circumstance to create an interest 

 in my subject on the part of all, I feel that it increases the number of 

 my critics in a manner which might be formidable if I did not rely, as 

 I think I may, on your indulgent sympathy. 



What I propose first to consider is the nature of History, what his- 

 tory is, how we should regard it, and what we may expect from it. 

 The law of development holds good here, as generally throughout human 

 affairs. The modern notion of history could not have existed in any 

 age when there was no specific demand for objective truth. There was 

 a Muse of History in ancient times, but her name, Clio, meant little more 

 than "report" and report is not a very solid basis for history. As that 

 respectable writer G. F. Daunou once observed, the proper and safe 

 equivalent of ''on dit" is "personne n'affirme", or "rien ne prouve", and 

 as regards most "on dits" it would be well to make a rule of taking the 

 other side of the equation. "On" is not a responsible party. Etymol- 

 ogists tell us that it is a shortened form of "homme"; but until "hom- 

 me" gives us his name and address, and signifies the source of his in- 

 formation, he is not highly entitled to credence. 



The word "History", is of more promise, for it points to enquiry 

 and knowledge founded on enquiry. It is in the sense of enquiry that 

 Herodotus uses it in the opening sentence of his happily surviving nar- 

 rative, in which, indeed, are many things difficult to believe, but which 

 taken as a whole, makes delightful and not uninstructive reading. 



The idea that history involved investigation was a fruitful one; and, 

 as time went on, the need for objective truth in history was more deeply 

 felt and more strongly affirmed. Not that the progress was unbroken. 



