168 MODERN HISTORY OF EUROPE 



urgent than in that of modern politics, where the data are over- 

 whelming and one's judgment is apt to be influenced either by 

 patriotic instinct or social theory. 



A single word in conclusion. Lord Acton praises robust impar- 

 tiality, and I am following a famous precedent of Newman when I 

 state the case against myself as strongly as possible. The one topic 

 which runs through the foregoing remarks is the personal element in 

 historical synthesis, together with the bearing of the author's per- 

 sonality upon the scientific character of his work. Professor Bury 

 said last year at Cambridge: "When the ultimate history of Ger- 

 many in the nineteenth century comes to be written, it will differ 

 widely from Treitschke's work, but that brilliant book can never 

 cease to be a characteristic document of its epoch." 1 One goes 

 considerably past this point in suggesting that our sense of histor- 

 ical truth may be deepened by familiarity with Michelet, Quinet, 

 Macaulay, and Green. I hesitate only at the name of Froude. 

 1 The Science of History, p. 34. 



