INTRODUCTORY. 31 



body is supposed to understand it ; to every one it seems 

 to suggest a useful meaning. 



In the scientific portion of this history we have seen 

 how the word has been introduced, notably through 

 cosmology and geology, to denote gradual succession of 

 slow developments and changes ; how it was then taken 

 up by biology, and how, in these three fields of research, 

 it marks a contrast to two other views, the uniformitarian 

 and catastrophic views, of which the former emphasised 

 the fixity, the latter, the suddenness of change in natural 

 things and processes. From this more restricted and 

 well-defined use the word has been introduced iiito other 

 regions of science, history, and thought with less well- 

 defined meanings. 



To historians and philosophers the word recommends 

 itself for yet other reasons, which seem to stand in no 

 immediate connection with the movements of scientific 

 thought to which I just referred. 



A great change has come over the writing of history 24. 

 in the course of the nineteenth century. History, even poiut of'^ 



. . . I . . view in 



if it be only political history, no longer consists solely history. 

 of a record of wars, battles, invasions, and revolutions, 

 nor in the biography of kings, rulers, warriors, and 

 statesmen. An account of the manners and customs of 

 different peoples in different ages is not relegated to 

 isolated chapters, or to the meagre appendix of a political 

 history.^ The idea, which was already expressed by 



' As it was by David Hume, 1 government, manners, finances, 



who nevertheless emphasises the arms, trade, learning), history can 



importance of these subjects. be little instructive and often will 



"Where a just notion is not not be intelligible" ('History of 



formed of these particulars (viz., I England,' Appendix to chap, xlix.) 



