Munro—Some Tendencies in History. 697 
Charles Kingsley’s Roman and Teuton, where in one chapter, 
“the strategy of Providence,” the author tries to show how 
the Germans were led by Providence to form repeatedly a 
sort of flying wedge which hit the weakest point in the 
Roman line of defense. This style of interpretation has 
been and still is very popular; most of the church histories 
have been written from this point of view; and the tendency 
has survived among those who reject any theological bias. 
Many of the disciples of Hegel “tacitly assumed that every 
social fact has its raison d’etre in the development of society— 
that is, that it ends by turning to the advantage of society.” 
“This,” as Seignobos says, “is the fundamental idea of 
. . . Ranke, Mommsen, Droysen, Cousin, Taine, Mich¬ 
elet.” In the same category is the “theory of the ideas 
which are successively realized in history through the me¬ 
dium of successive peoples; (following out Vico’s thesis 
“that changes in civilization could be interpreted according 
to an ordered sequence which has its moving force in the 
growth and change of the collective mind of mankind from gen¬ 
eration to generation,”) the historical mission ( Beruf) which is 
attributed to nations” such as the characterization of the Phoe¬ 
nicians as the missionaries of civilization, of Rome as the 
strong right arm which spread Greek civilization. This 
idea will long continue, however hard the historians may 
strive to introduce correct notions, for it is still a very 
popular conception that “Die Weltgeschichte ist ein Weltge- 
richt .” 
Fortunately the French Revolution directed men to a 
study of constitutional history. Some were eager to destroy 
all the foundation of society and to rebuild; many zealous 
reformers set to work on a priori notions, in a way that is 
familiar to us all. But the thoughtful were keen enough to 
know that it was necessary to study the past and to build in 
accordance with the stubborn facts; that rash innovations 
bear in themselves the seeds of their own destruction. Con¬ 
sequently the disorders of revolutionary Europe led to a 
study of the forms of government and therefore laid the 
greatest emphasis upon political and constitutional history. 
This movement found especial acceptance in Germany, 
which led the way in this field of history, as in so many 
others. Emerging from the crushing ordeal of the Napo- 
