May 9, 1884.] 
completely changed. Young men, returning 
from their study abroad, brought home with 
them this new principle, —to learn while, and 
by, investigating. All at once a new analogy 
to the study of nature began to be empha- 
sized. The historian was to accompany the 
naturalist in his method of taking the thing to 
be studied in his hand, and applying the micro- 
scope to it; but this was to be done no longer 
with the ultimate purpose of deducing general 
laws of human progress, but simply of com- 
pleting the record. Under this new impulse, 
history has now fairly begun to take its place 
by the side of other studies, as a subject de- 
manding, in the widest sense of that term, a 
scientific treatment. 
It would be a misfortune if either of the 
schools we have been examining should gain 
permanent and complete control over the other. 
Each has its claim to respect; but, for a long 
time to come, it seems clear that that view of 
the subject which has brought about so impor- 
tant, so decisive a change must remain the one 
to which our science must look for its support 
and its vindication. 
These comments upon the condition of 
American instruction have been suggested by 
the appearance of two books, each in its way 
important for the future of the subject. ‘Meth- 
ods of teaching and studying history,’ edited 
as the first volume of a proposed ‘ Pedagogical 
library,’ by Dr. G. Stanley Hall, consists of 
an essay, occupying about half the volume, by 
Dr. G. Diesterweg, well known in Germany 
as the author of numerous pedagogical works, 
and of shorter contributions by professors in 
leading American colleges, together with an 
excellent short bibliography of general history 
by Prof. W. F. Allen of the University of Wis- 
consin. The importance of this book at the 
present time lies far more in its general pur- 
pose, and in its suggestion of a strong force 
behind it, than in any special excellence of its 
own. The treatise by Diesterweg is subject 
to the criticism, so often deserved by German 
writing, that it succeeds in obscuring the 
subject it tries to explain. The translation 
maintains all the obscurity of the original, and 
adds much of its own. ‘The essays by Ameri- 
can teachers were prepared, on what seems a 
wholly false principle, without any common un- 
derstanding as to division of the field, and bear 
somewhat of the perfunctory character inci- 
dent to most writing done at the demand of an 
editor. The various writers repeat each other ; 
and the effect can hardly be to impress strong- 
ly upon the minds of teachers in the lower 
schools any effectual lessons for their own 
SCIENCE. 
565 
guidance. It is to be regretted that the Ger- 
man essay could not have been left out al- 
together, and replaced by something based 
upon a wider range of thought, and more per- 
tinent to our American problem. If the Ameri- 
an writers could have known each what the 
other was writing, the result would have been 
more harmonious, and the effect, as a whole, 
more decided. Yet one advantage has come 
from this defect: it has demonstrated how 
strong is the current which is now setting in 
the direction of what we may call, by a phrase 
which will cover many varieties of detail, 
‘teaching by topics.” There is complete 
agreement, among the writers, on this point, 
that effectual teaching in history, as every- 
where else, is that which rouses the student 
out of the dulness of a merely receptive con- 
dition, and puts him into the attitude of an 
original thinker. ‘There would be a multitude 
of opinions as to the age at which this sort of 
work should begin, the exact form it should 
take, its proportion to the work of the memory, 
and so on. It is to be hoped that an oppor- 
tunity will be offered: for the further develop- 
ment of these points, — far more valuable for 
the teacher than a philosophical treatise in the 
cumbrous form of German metaphysical treat- 
ment. . 
Another point emphasized by some of the 
writers, and tacitly admitted by others, is the 
necessity for a steady progress of the student 
in the acquisition of a firm basis for his knowl- 
edge in space and time: chronology and geog- 
raphy, learned by a definite act of memory, 
according to one or another principle, must 
begin and accompany all study of history. 
This demand has called forth the second of 
the books referred to, — Ploetz’s ‘Auszug aus 
der geschichte,’ translated and enlarged by Mr. 
William H. Tillinghast of the Harvard college 
library. This book was originally made for 
the use of students while engaged in detailed 
study, to furnish them with a substantial basis 
of general knowledge. It holds a middle posi- 
tion between a mere dictionary of dates and a 
connected narrative of general history. The 
work of translation has been done with some- 
thing better than accuracy, — with a complete 
command of the original language, and a con- 
scientious purpose to improve upon the mate- 
rial offered. The new volume is essentially a 
book for Americans. It will be welcomed by 
persons holding all shades of opinion as_ to 
historical methods, and ought to become a 
permanent factor in the new development 
through which the teaching of history is 
passing. 
