CONCEPTION AND METHODS OF HISTORY 45 



institutions which we roughly class as medieval were fully developed 

 before the break-up of the Empire. Secondly, there are many reasons 

 for discarding the period commonly known as the Renaissance, which 

 is at present the source of the most vicious misapprehensions. The 

 later Middle Ages, beginning with the Crusades, Abelard, and the 

 universities, the revival of law studies, the developing Gelduirthschaft, 

 might without serious danger of misapprehension be regarded as 

 closing with the Protestant Revolt, the final secession of a consider- 

 able portion of Europe from the most powerful and all-pervading 

 institution of the earlier periods. Lastly, the commonly accepted 

 period beginning with the supposed opening of the French Revolu- 

 tion in 1789 could with great advantage be extended back to the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, thus putting the whole democratic 

 movement in a truer light than hitherto. The French Revolution, 

 in the sense of a permanent reform of earlier institutions which gave 

 the example for similar changes in other European countries, was 

 really nearly complete by 1790; and the emphasis which has hitherto 

 been placed upon the assembling of the Estates General in 1789 has 

 served to put the whole situation in a wrong light. 



The divisions I suggest make no claim to be definitive or even 

 novel. They all, however, have the advantage of bringing into pro- 

 minence the historical continuity of which we may never safely lose 

 sight. 



Should the historian learn to meet the demand that he parcel out 

 the past into convenient portions without, however, rending its unity 

 or dividing its substance, he will still have other serious obstacles to 

 surmount in his task of reconciling our historic knowledge with the 

 exigencies of literary presentation. Foremost among these difficulties 

 is that of expressing the degrees of certainty with which various his- 

 toric data can be established. Every investigator is keenly aware that 

 our information in regard to the past varies all the way from the most 

 precarious and suspicious rumors to reasonably reliable reports. We 

 sometimes have manifold and seemingly accurate accounts of trivial 

 matters, sometimes only the most meagre and unsatisfactory hints 

 in regard to great changes and enduring institutions. The literary 

 spirit, uncurbed in the past, has commonly led the writers, upon 

 whom the historian must rely, to bequeath us notices of the excep- 

 tional and startling rather than of the humdrum routine, some 

 knowledge of which is so essential if one desires to form an adequate 

 conception of the general conditions and prevailing tendencies of a 

 particular period. 



Few accepted historic facts, whether trivial or momentous, are 

 susceptible of anything like absolute demonstration. The modern 

 newspaper is an historic source of unparalleled accuracy and relia- 

 bility compared, let us say. with Suetonius 's Life of Julius Caesar, Ein- 



