12 Wisconsin Acachmy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTOEY. 



Bt Phof. a. O. Wright. 



Within the last century the study of history has taken a new 

 departure. The materials of history have been sifted more care- 

 fully, and researches have been made in every direction for new 

 material. The monuments of Egypt, of Assyria, and of Baby- 

 lonia have been made^to give up the dead languages buried in 

 them, and to tell the tale of their forgotten dynasties. The 

 ancient language and civilization of Hindoostan reaches across 

 the eastern continent to claim kinship with the sons of Japhet in 

 the West. Historical and antiquarian societies have sprung up 

 all over Europe and America to gather every document and 

 every monument that can furnish material or illustration for 

 history. 



Historians are beginning to pay more attention too, to the grand 

 forces that move society. History is ceasing to be the annals of 

 monarchs and the story of battles and is coming to be more and 

 more the record of the collective life of a nation or of the whole 

 human race. The scope of history is thus greatly widened. 



And, thirdly, there is coming into existence a philosophy of 

 history which attempts to explain the causes of the greater 

 movements of mankind. Thus in a history of any nation or 

 epoch we may reasonably ask for three things, accuracy of detail, 

 breadth of view, and a presentation of causes and effects, or the 

 philosophic relation of facts. It is with the last that this paper 

 will attempt to deal . 



There are three great conditions of history. Eiih of these 

 is claimed by one school of historians to be the chief or only 

 cause of human history. And according as we lay stress on one 

 or another of these great conditions will our whole interpretation 

 of history vary from materialism to idealism. 



The first great condi'ion of history is found in the physical 

 characteristics of the earth. Of these the most important is 

 climate ; but all the physical conditions that affect c:)mmerce agri- 



