158 MODERN HISTORY OF EUROPE 



he would have been one of the first philosophers of the age," and 

 the above rejoinder lends color to the statement. When under the 

 auspices of the Greeks history entered upon the European phase of 

 its existence it had the character of a fine art, and perhaps some 

 profit can still be gained by recalling this fact. One kind of talent is 

 required to elicit the data; another kind of talent is required when the 

 story comes to be told, whether as plain narrative or with interpre- 

 tative comment. Fortunate is the man who is gifted in both direc- 

 tions, and though rare, he might be less rare if historians accorded 

 more attention to the synthetic part of their task. As Burke says 

 at the close of the JRe flections : "When the equipoise of the vessel in 

 which we sail may be endangered by overloading it upon one side, 

 we become desirous of carrying the small weight of our reasons to that 

 which may preserve its equipoise." In our day the idea of scientific 

 truth has received quite its fair share of emphasis, and we are not 

 likely to bring back those pseudo-Thucydidean flourishes of the 

 eighteenth century which provoke the sarcasms of Mr. Wylie. By 

 way of adjusting the equipoise, let us direct our notice to the his- 

 torian as a writer whose personality need not be effaced and whose 

 role has only been rendered the greater by the improved quality of 

 the materials which are now within his grasp. 



However created, the impression seems prevalent in high quarters 

 that a writer of historical works must be deemed suspect if he permits 

 his text to become associated with the distinctive quality of his own 

 mind. By way of gloss upon this notion, two passages of very differ- 

 ent origin may be brought together. One day when Fustel de Cou- 

 langes was lecturing, his students broke in with applause. " Do not 

 applaud me," he said; "it is not I who address you; it is history 

 which speaks through me." * This anecdote, taken from an obituary 

 notice of Fustel by Gabriel Monod, illustrates the danger to which 

 the modern historian is exposed when he emphasizes overmuch the 

 scientific character of his subject. From what we know of Fustel's 

 disposition we must believe him to have uttered these words in the 

 most sober earnest. They were not a mere rhetorical flourish but an 

 outburst from the soul, showing that with all his personal modesty 

 he had come to consider his own doctrines a portion of absolute 

 truth. Fustel is not, perhaps, a perfect type of the scientific his- 

 torian, yet he looked upon himself as being a complete and faith- 

 ful devotee of science. "He had," says M. Monod, "a very lofty 

 idea of history and the duties of an historian. He believed that 

 history is a positive science, and that it is able to lead those who 

 study the text honestly and critically to a certitude of the most 

 scientific kind. He considered that those who have the honor of 

 working at this science should give themselves up to it with absolute 

 1 Revue Historiyue, vol. XLI, p. 278. 



