[CRUIKSHANK] PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 5 



motive forces of human history must be found in the moral con- 

 stitution of humanity. 



How great is the difficulty of forming an equitable judgment 

 of the actions of public men when private emotions as well as reasons 

 of state are found to influence them, and their actions may appear to 

 result as much from private inclination as from national policy? 



"In life, as we actually experience it," says a great writer, 

 "motives slide one into the other, and the most careful analysis will 

 fail adequately to sift them." And In another passage, "There are 

 practices in the game of politics which the historian, in the name of 

 morality, is bound to condemn, which nevertheless in this false and 

 confused world, statesmen to the end of time will continue to repeat. "- 



Freeman, it is hardly necessary to recall, invented the catch- 

 phrase that "present history is past politics," which had a great 

 vogue, but only states a partial truth. Buckle asserted that genuine 

 historical evolution consists in Intellectual progress. Most modern 

 economists concur In the view that the dominating forces in historical 

 development are economic. Many churchmen believe that the chief 

 factor in history is religion. 



Ethics certainly give to history its most rational goal. A llvmg 

 German philosopher declares that "a real understanding of history is 

 not possible without ethics; universal history is the realization of 

 the moral . . . within humanity." This seems a rather cryptic 



saying. 



It must be admitted that the white man has been guilty of much 

 cruelty and dishonesty to the savage but he does not like to speak of 

 It and whenever necessity compels an unwilling reference, he has 

 Invariably some apology ready about manifest destiny, the advance- 

 ment of civilization, or taking up the white man's burden, in which he 

 yields an Involuntary tribute to the higher ethical conscience. 



As the religion of Buddha gained followers among the Hindus, 

 Indian society gradually became impregnated with a conviction of 

 the nothingness of life. To escape and not to dominate became the 

 keynote of their faith. And as they believed human life to be in- 

 significant, its history as a matter of course, seemed insignificant too. 

 As Mr. Lowes Dickinson observes. It is not an accident, but a con- 

 sequence that there are no Hindu historians. 



Among more virile races, on the other hand, history from being 

 a mere glorification of the chief or reigning monarch, developed into 

 a form of ancestor-worship, or a fillo-pietistic chronicle. And such 

 it con tinued to be until comparatively recent times, and to a certain 



^ Froude: History of England. 



