EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



creased use of sociology, this more frequent and 

 conscious reference to the "conditions," the 

 " environment," and all that sort of thing, does 

 not make the modern historian less mindful of 

 the reverence due to great men. On the con- 

 trary, it enhances his appreciation of them 

 through his more profound knowledge of the 

 conditions under which they have worked. As 

 an example I may refer to the way in which the 

 life of Caesar has been treated respectively by 

 Froude and by Mommsen. To both these 

 writers Caesar is the greatest hero that has ever 

 lived, and both do their best to illustrate his 

 career. Both, too, have done their work well. 

 But Mr. Froude has profited very little by the 

 modern scientific study of social phenomena, 

 and his method is in the main the method of 

 Carlyle. Mommsen, on the other hand, is 

 saturated in every fibre with "science," with 

 " sociology," with the " comparative method," 

 with the "study of institutions." As a result of 

 this difference, we find that Mr. Froude quite 

 fails to do justice to the very greatest part of 

 all Caesar's work, namely, the reconstructive 

 measures of the last years of his life, which 

 Mommsen has so admirably characterized in his 

 profound chapter on the Old Republic and the 

 New Monarchy. Or, if still more striking proof 

 be needed that the scientific study of the evolu- 

 tion of society is not incompatible with the 

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