OF SOCIETY. 575 



treatment of history was succeeded by the political 

 treatment of which von Sybel may be considered the 

 greatest representative. 



But the unification of Germany, which in the middle 

 of the century was an aspiration and a dream, was 

 realised by quite other means than by those which the 

 earlier school of political historians were aiming at. 

 When once accomplished it indeed formulated new tasks 

 and established new views for the national historians. 

 But the real political impulse was wanting, and with it 

 there disappeared that immediate purpose which had 

 given life and interest to von Sybel's historical view. 

 A prominent representative of historical learning in 

 Germany thus looks upon the younger generation of 

 historians as placed in a kind of dilemma. So much 

 has happened that was new and unexpected that there 

 seems wanting a definite orientation among the historical 

 writers of the day. Are they to return to the lofty 

 classicism of Ranke, or is a new conception gradually 

 pushing forward which will afford a better understand- 

 ing of historical progress and development ? The differ- 

 ence may be stated in various ways. Is the writing 

 of history an art or a science ? Has it to be inspired 

 by a few great and supreme ideas, or has it to adapt 

 itself to the realistic and naturalistic view of life which 

 the progress of the exact sciences has introduced ? 

 Were it purely an abstract or academic question, the 

 two ways of handling the historical problem, the artistic 

 and the scientific, the idealistic and the naturalistic, 

 might live and thrive peaceably alongside of each other. 

 But in Germany, as well as in other countries, the 



