HISTORICAL SYNTHESIS 167 



well as events. I imagine that we are all skeptical enough about 

 political prophecy and the formulation of historical laws. Fortunately 

 we can have a synthesis which will illuminate portions of the past 

 and stimulate our thought, without the introduction of scholastic 

 language, the wrangle over definitions, and the restless desire to reach 

 some goal. A few years ago a new historical periodical was being 

 started, and I asked one of its promoters (a scholar whose name 

 is familiar to all present) if the projected magazine would resemble 

 another which I named. "Oh dear, no!" he replied. "No one 

 reads that. We want ours to sell on the news-stands." This was 

 a hopeful aspiration for a quarterly! Whether or not it has been 

 gratified may possibly be learned by inquiry at the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion. MM. Langlois and Seignobos condemn German historians for 

 trying to impress the public, but what kind of writing comes closer 

 to the educated layman than history, with the exception of pure 

 literature? Here is a perpetual incentive to synthetic effort, and 

 if scholars permit the public to suffer at the hands of second-rate 

 vulgarizers, it may be at the double cost to themselves of duty 

 neglected and faculty untrained. 



There is, of course, no recipe for preparing the historical master- 

 piece which becomes a symbol of national erudition or a glory of 

 the national literature; but in the body of this paper I have tried 

 to emphasize the essential ingredient, namely, the genius of the 

 author. The man who thinks himself so complete a master of his- 

 torical synthesis that when he opens his lips he is declaring a verity 

 of science, would seem, however learned and gifted, to be working on 

 a false theory. The best historians when they coordinate make 

 errors of omission, statement, judgment, taste, and style, being 

 human and using the fluid vehicle of human thought. Yet is this 

 a reason why one should attempt to efface himself or keep back his 

 mature opinions, in the hope that by so doing he shall more nearly 

 approximate absolute truth? This query is not intended to furnish 

 a loophole for the extenuation of prejudice or the encouragement of 

 " loose talk." It is suggested by the practice of historians like Ranke, 

 Stubbs, and Gardiner, whose identity can be discerned in their works 

 and whose works derive value from the presence of that identity. It 

 is the purest truism that the historical point of view shifts from age 

 to age, and that as regards innumerable questions relating to the 

 past it may be said quot homines tot sententiae. None the less each 

 generation demands its own synthesis and exacts the best attainable. 

 One should read what Merlin says to Vivien about fame if he feels 

 grieved at knowing how certainly his book will perish unless pre- 

 served by the force of its ideas or the beauty of its form. Still it may 

 be serviceable while it lasts. 



In no department of history is the problem of synthesis more 



