120 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 



it the renewed and determining advance of the socio-psychic ele- 

 ments. This was evident along the whole line of scientific endeavor, 

 especially in the rise of sociology and anthropology during the last 

 decades, with their far-reaching consequences and accompanying 

 phenomena. In the domain of history, this meant a fresh start in 

 the writing of histories of civilization in so far as the development 

 of method was energetically taken in hand; description alone was 

 no longer the watchword, but an intelligent comprehension. 



It was now a question of following up the complex phenomena of 

 the socio-psychic life, the working out of the so-called national soul 

 in its elementary parts. The first step on this path would necessarily 

 lead to the immediate analysis of the phenomena that appeared 

 within the existence of great communities of men, that is to say, 

 chiefly of nations. Hence the proving and detailed characterization 

 of socio-psychic eras within this domain : this was the next step. We 

 can see how this was done by Burckhardt who, in his history of the 

 culture of the Renaissance, was the first to point out the great 

 psychic difference between the so-called Middle Ages and the periods 

 of higher culture. Thus a master hand determined and depicted one 

 of the most marked phases in the rhythmic movement of the culture- 

 epochs of a nation. From this point the way must lead on to a 

 statement of the course of a whole series of cultural ages. This has 

 been attempted in my German History. 



But this is only the beginning of an intensive socio-psychological 

 method. In this blocking out of the culture-epochs, the elements of 

 the socio-psychic movements, as such, are not analyzed, but simply 

 touched upon, and the time indicated in which great movements 

 find their origin. When this is once well done, the question arises 

 whether for these ages of culture there is one common underlying 

 psychic mechanism, and if so, of what nature it is, and what is the 

 aggregate of these underlying, yet apparent, psychic elements. And 

 if these problems are solved, there appears further a last yet perhaps 

 provisional question, namely, whether the psychic elements referred 

 to are really elementary in the sense that they are to be found in the 

 results of modern psychology as hitherto known. 



This is not the place to analyze or attempt to solve the questions 

 thus raised; but the means of finding an answer will be pointed out 

 in the later lectures, at least in so far as to prove that, for the 

 mechanism of the great socio-psychic movements, the same elements 

 and laws hold good of which proof is given in recent psychological 

 investigation, and with that of the discovery of the elementary 

 psychic energy proper to the historical movement. At this point 

 there arises, in consequence of the preceding statement, another 

 question. If modern historical science w r ould penetrate to the inner- 

 most springs of universal history, find them to be in certain psychic 



