INTRODUCTION. 3 



ing mind. It may be that a mechanical and mindless series 

 of changes can produce numbers without end, or forms of 

 countless variety: but this process would deserve the name 

 of history only if either the transition from unity to mul- 

 tiplicity, or the production of formal variety, were capable 

 of being understood by a thinking mind, if the result 

 of the process were a matter of some concern, if an 

 interest were attached to it, if a gain or loss could be 

 recorded. The pendulum which swings backwards and 

 forwards in endless monotony, the planet which moves 

 round the sun in unceasing repetition, the atom of matter 

 which vibrates in the same path, have for us no interest 

 beyond the mathematical formulae which govern their 

 motions, and which permit us mentally to reproduce, i.e., 

 to think them. A combination of an infinite number of 

 these elementary movements would have as little interest, 

 were it not that out of such a combination there resulted 

 something novel and unforeseen : something that was 

 beautiful to behold or useful to possess, something that 

 was valuable to a thinking mind in a higher or lower 

 meaning of the word. 



But if, even in inanimate nature, the processes of change 

 acquire an interest, possess a history, only if referred to 

 a thinking mind which can record, understand, and appre- 

 ciate them, how much more is this the case when we deal 

 with human affairs, where man is not only the thinking 

 beholder but the principal agent ? Here the historic 

 interest would cease, were the succeeding years and ages 

 to produce no valuable change, were the rule of existence 

 and the order of life to repeat themselves in unceasing 

 monotony. The savage tribes of Africa have a history: but is it? ' 



