THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY 117 



of Western European culture passed through stages in which the 

 most marked psychic differentiations took place in the individual 

 members of these communities. A certain time-spirit dominated 

 all these nations in which the civilization of the new American 

 world had its origin; it is the spirit which may rightly be called that 

 of subjectivity. Not uniformity, but variety of the subjective per- 

 fection of the individual, is the ideal of to-day. And the collective 

 culture of our time rests on vast working corporations of individuals 

 who are no less vastly differentiated each in themselves. 



For us it is a well-known state of affairs, this product of nervous 

 activity which has characterized the last six or seven generations, 

 and it is superfluous to describe it in detail. But it would not be 

 inappropriate to trace once and for all, logically and clearly, the 

 consequences of these changes as well for the character of historical 

 science of the present as for that of the immediate future. The 

 result is that for such a time as this only that kind of historical 

 comprehension is adequate which, side by side with the individual- 

 psychological, admits also the socio-psychological treatment, the 

 consideration of the evolution of the collective psychic products 

 of human communities a treatment which does not merely allude 

 occasionally to this admission, but maintains consistently and 

 unconditionally, that for every case of historical investigation the 

 socio-psychological forces are the stronger, and therefore those that 

 properly determine the course of things; that, consequently, they 

 include the operation of the individual-psychic forces. Granted that 

 this is the universal formulation of the now necessary point of view 

 as it is carried out to-day not only in the field of historiography (in 

 some instances with a clear insight into its consequences), but as seen 

 in the new sciences and new methods which it has made to bear fruit, 

 for example, sociology, or prehistoric excavations; yet it would be 

 a mistake to assume that the revolution in this direction took place 

 suddenly or that it has even now reached its completion. Rather 

 has it gone forward slowly in the course of at least a century and a 

 half, if we reckon according to events in Germany. And the resulting 

 views have been shown, though in steady conflict with the older 

 individual-psychic opinions, to be invincible in spite of the marks of 

 immaturity and a lack of definiteness borne on their face. They 

 stand forth, nevertheless, with a breadth, a logical cohesion, and an 

 inward completeness, which it has been beyond the power of the 

 bitterest hostility to weaken or to remove. 



If I carry the study further to the contemplation of the evolution 

 of Germany, because this is most familiar to me, and because, I 

 believe, by keeping to a narrower limit, in the short time assigned 

 me we may gain greater clearness and a more plastic form, I must 

 not fail to mention the honored name of Herder, the hundredth 



