SOCIOLOGY AND HERO-WORSHIP 



from age to age the mere study of the personal 

 characteristics and achievements of great men is 

 not sufficient. Carlyle's method of dealing with 

 history, making it a mere series of prose epics, 

 has many merits, but it is nevertheless, from a 

 scientific point of view, inadequate ; it does not 

 explain the course of events. History is some- 

 thing more than biography. Without the least 

 disrespect to the memories of the great states- 

 men of Greece and Rome, it may safely be said 

 that one might learn all of " Plutarch's Lives " 

 by heart, and still have made very little progress 

 toward comprehending the reasons why the 

 Greek states were never able to form a coherent 

 political aggregate, or why the establishment of 

 despotism at Rome was involved in the conquest 

 of the Mediterranean world. The true way to 

 approach such historical problems as these is 

 not to speculate about the personal character- 

 istics of Lysander or C. Gracchus, but to con- 

 sider the popular assemblies of the Greeks and 

 Romans in their points of likeness and unlike- 

 ness to the folkmotes and parliaments of Eng- 

 land and the town meetings of Massachusetts. 

 Since the middle of the nineteenth century the 

 revolution which has taken place in the study 

 of history is as great and as thorough as the 

 similar revolution which, under Mr. Darwin's 

 guidance, has been effected in the study of bi- 

 ology. The interval in knowledge which sepa- 

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