40 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. II. 



justly estimate what runs counter to our own convictions or interests ; 

 moral earnestness, that we may see the purpose in the tragedy of history. 

 The spirit of patient research is necessary for the historian; but he 

 must be more than a book-worm. He must be a man who knows men, 

 who feels the pulse of human emotion throb w-armly in his veins* 

 Severe thought is necessary for the student of history. He must rise 

 above the Zeit Geist of his own age, and live in that of the age he would 

 depict. Buckle draws up a formidable list of what he must know — 

 Political economy, law, ecclesiastical affairs, physical science, etc. He 

 must have imagination, too, for " narrative is linear, action is solid," and 

 he must fill a dead outline with moving life. We may ask lastly, what 

 has history to tell us of the future ? Without doubt the development of 

 man takes place under law. If we could know the whole of the present 

 we should also know the whole of the future. In this sense there is a 

 science of history. But man cannot know all the present, and history 

 deals with the most subtle of phenomena — the will, the affections, etc. 

 The science of education tells us what influences will develop certain 

 characteristics, but history is concerned with the production of these 

 very influences — a much more obscure question. Yet history has some- 

 thing to say regarding the future. The countryman complained that 

 he could not see the city for the houses, and we, too, cannot see the 

 future because we are so closely hemmed in by the present. We must 

 go to the past and study the tendencies that are fully worked out there,, 

 and then we can come back to the present and plan wisely for the future. 

 Lord Chesterfield, a keen man of the world, who had studied history, 

 predicted the French Revolution a quarter of a century before it came. 

 The future is not determined, any more than a people's language is 

 determined, by theories. A wise, wide study of facts and induction 

 based upon these is the only foundation of historical prophecy. A 

 thread of purpose runs through the ages, and, as Mr. Goldvvin Smith has 

 said, theistic belief is the only thing that can preserve us from despair. 



On behalf of Mr. Wm. Houston, a paper on the " Genesis and Growth 

 of Capital," was read by Mr, Alan Macdougall, C.E., in which the 

 following statements were made : — One of the most important features of 

 the economic condition of the world, and especiall}' of America, at the 

 present day is the accumulation of large masses of wealth in the hands 

 of individuals. Millionaires abound in the United States, and not a few 

 men are reputed to be worth a great many millions each. These men 

 do not let their wealth lie idle. If " capital " is rightly defined to be that 

 portion of wealth which is devoted to the production of more wealth,, 

 then practically the whole of each man's wealth is " capital." It is not 

 the purpose of this paper to trace the effect of such aggregations of 



