82 HISTORY OF GREECE, ROME, AND ASIA 



Certainly the modern historian must not limit himself to narrate that 

 which, according to the ancients, formed the essence of their history. 

 He has, after all, the duty to retrace those elements of which they 

 had not a full knowledge, and which are useful in explaining the 

 complex development of humanity. But in such a case, besides the 

 study of economic forms, it is necessary to turn one's attention to 

 the development of religious and moral opinion and to the history 

 of arts and sciences. And the investigation of the reasons which 

 determine the reciprocal action of all these elements and the prepon- 

 derance of one over the other, according to the different ages and 

 places, constitutes the most complex problem which the historian of 

 the ancient world is called upon to solve. 



The method of making chapters in literary, artistic, philosophical 

 history, from the narrative which in substance is constituted of ex- 

 ternal facts, is now out of date. The history of a people, just as the 

 history of an individual, is subject to transformations which modify 

 its activity. If the history of the Roman people has remained essen- 

 tially military and political, that of the Greek races presents instead 

 the phenomenon of different elements combining with one another. 

 The literary and artistic history of the Athens of the fifth century bal- 

 ances that more strictly political, but the development of criticism 

 and of sciences constitutes certainly one of the most important char- 

 acteristics of the age of the Diadochi. Thus for the period of the 

 Spanish preponderance, the Italian nations will very rarely give occa- 

 sion to speak of arms, but will offer, instead, material for art, for the 

 study of the works of Galileo and of Bruno. 



Politics, military art, law, economy, fine art, science, from the 

 historical point of view, form a complex whole before the history 

 of the ancient and modern world. And since the unlimited increase 

 of knowledge in the branches of learning makes this task more and 

 more difficult, it is evident that our education, freed from useless 

 teachings and old prejudices, must be strengthened by the study of 

 the sciences. But it will not be enough to reform the organization 

 of our colleges, we shall have still to break the barriers of our faculties; 

 because if it is true that no science can improve without long and 

 detailed technical researches, it is also true that the studies of special- 

 ists contain rarely important results, unless they are guided by 

 large conceptions and are coordinated with various and kindred 

 sciences. 



And among the sciences which are destined to make future his- 

 toriography improve, politics comes first. This recommendation may 

 at first seem ingenuous or altogether useless, unless one consider 

 how, after having naturally exempted some famous works, nearly all 

 the modern production in the field of classic antiquity is due to the 

 activity of the philologist. The necessity of investigating the literary 



