October, 1891. 



OUR COLUMNS. 



Si 



point worth noting is the splendid service rendered by the originators of the Epochs series. 

 (Longmans.)'*' We are not concerned with the fact that these manuals are excellent cram- 

 ming books. Their great virtue is that they give the special points of interest in a special 

 period, and treat English as a part of European history. When studying a period, keep 

 the Epoch by you, for reference, for the sake of the maps, kc. 



This leads me to an important consideration. Excessive specializing is a great error 

 whatever be the subject. Always remember that the world did not stand still in the year 

 of grace 1066, nor yet in 1215, nor in 1815. Enormously imjjortant events then happened, 

 past events leading up to them, subsequent history largely coloured by them. But don't 

 suppose that William's landing, the signing of the Charter, or the battle of Waterloo are 

 isolated events to be studied simply by themselves. Though taking history by epochs has 

 this danger, I still believe that it is the best Avay to read. While you are engaged in a 

 particular epoch, let me add, cons\dt from time to time the Encyclojjcedia Britannica : its 

 articles are by the best specialists. 



Our second-period authorities are : Green, from Richard I. to Edward 1. ; Stubbs' 

 Constitutional History, as it can be digested ; Gibbon, chap. lix. ; Simon de Montfort, 

 in Livington's Hand-Book Series ; Robertson's Scotland under her Early Kings ; Freeman's 

 essay on Scotland in Vol. I. of his essays ; and the last chapter of his Norman Conquest. 

 Then the Hundred Years' AVar, and the Wars of the Roses, being so little more than 

 a tale of bloodshed, need in my judgment only be read in Green and in Gairdner's 

 Epoch. Oman's Earl Waricich is excellent reading, and especially useful for those whose 

 ideas about York and Lancaster are chiefly derived from Lord Lytton. 



Suppose now that Mr. A or Miss B says that the old Normans and Plantagenets are 

 wearisome, their dates and battles Avere learnt by heart at school, something newer and 

 fresher would be acceptable. I highly approve. What do you say to a short course of 

 reading on mediaeval continental history ? It is something to knoAv how modern nations 

 gradually grew ujd from the debris of the Roman Empire. Try some of the following : — 

 Gibbon ; Curteis' excellent handbook on the Fall of the Roman Empire (Rivingtons) ; 

 Sismondi's Italian Republics, to be followed by Lord Macaulay's essay on Machiavelli ; 

 Symond's Age of the Despots, being the first volume of his Renaissance ; the Encyclopoedia 

 Britannica articles on the Popes ; above all, Bryce's Holy Roman Empire, chaps, x. to xvi, ; 

 Macaulay's essay on Ranlce's Lives of the Popes ; Freeman's essays on the two Fredericks ; 

 Machiavelli's Prince or History of Florence, translated in the Bohn series. Of course 

 such a work as Milman's Latin Christianity is so very long that one can hardly recommend 

 it, unless certain chapters only are named. All the Avorks above mentioned are com- 

 paratively short, and decidedly interesting. The German Empire and the Unity of Italy 

 are two of the grand events of the 19th Century ; the past history of their disintegration 

 is doubly interesting in the light of what middle-aged men can remember of the years 

 1858 to 1871. Turkey also not so long ago rivetted our attention when she had her 

 death-struggle with Russia ; read in Gibbon, chaps. 60, 61, 65, 67, 68, how the Turks 

 rose and seized Constantinople, and w^hom they dispossessed. The present is an age of 

 travel, you may some day visit Florence, Venice, or Rome ; read in Sismondi what the 



* Is it out of place to mention that the inventor and original editor of the Epochs Series was once a 

 well-known figure in Bedford? Twenty years ago as Headmaster of the County School he gave a 

 puhlic course of Historical lectures here. The success of the series has heen proved hy the foundation 

 of rival epochs hand-books, and by the very large number of editions that almost every book has run 

 through. 



