74 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



the past to all of us, and an insatiable desire to 

 learn to the utmost what really took place. 



Very often we hear a shameless avowal of con- 

 tempt for ' mere history/ f Let bygones be by- 

 gones/ men say ; ' we have to do with the present. 1 

 But the very problems which these men have to 

 solve in the present, have been attempted a thou- 

 sand times before in the course of history. Are 

 we to throw away all the results of human effort 

 and learn only by the education of failure what is 

 good for us? Would a biologist confine his 

 attention to the study of existing species of plants 

 and animals ? or would a chemist set aside as un- 

 worthy of study the results of the experiments of 

 his predecessors? So short is human life, and 

 so feeble the intelligence of man, that unless he 

 profits by the experience of past generations, he 

 will be falling back, not advancing in knowledge. 

 The truth is that the historian who discovers the 

 real line of human progress in the past, even in 

 some quite subordinate part of the field, does at 

 least as much for the well-being of mankind as 

 the man who discovers a new gas, or invents a 

 new mode of more rapid intercourse between 

 peoples. 



Speaking in the light of my own studies I may 

 say that there are two periods of ancient history 

 which are of extreme interest to us moderns, not 

 only as picturesque in themselves, but as shewing 

 us the true working and results of many of the 

 social tendencies now prevailing. These periods 



