Munro—Some Tendencies in History. 703 
periodical, the Byzantinische Zeitschrift , in which articles 
in any language can be published. Another interesting illus¬ 
tration is the Revue de Synthese Historique, founded toward 
the close of the last century, to serve as a medium for the 
study of all the inter-relations of history and allied sub¬ 
jects. In fact, we are all interested now both in general 
history and in history in its broadest conception. When we 
study any episode, although we may have to isolate it par¬ 
tially for the purpose of study, we are not concerned with 
it as an isolated phenomenon, but for the light which it may 
throw upon the whole course of events. 
In the present statu > of history man is the center. As 
Lord Morley says, “To leave out or lessen personality would 
be to turn the record of social development into a void.” 
This may sound like a truism; but in the “sundryological 
interpretations” of history this has not been recognized. 
Some have attempted to make geographical influences the 
center; others, society rather than man; still others have 
chosen this or that factor to be emphasized. Moreover, the 
man whom we study is not “the economic man,” that much 
used figment of the imagination which never existed any¬ 
where. We hold that man is not a mere creature of economic 
necessity, and that the pursuit of wealth has never been the 
exclusive motive of men’s exertions. This again is a truism 
which every one knows, but plausible presentations of other 
points of view have obscured it, and some books receive great 
commendation which derive all our institutions from the 
economic needs of man, entirely neglecting his complex and 
ever-varying motives and ideals. Moreover, we have not 
realized sufficiently man’s own creative work, by which 
each generation is being shaped anew; the action of man upon 
himself, which Michelet summed up in the phrase, “Man is 
his own Prometheus.” 
Our aim then is to study the life and activities of men. 
There is nothing new in this general statement. “The Ro¬ 
manticists (in the early years of the nineteenth century) 
grasped the cardinal truth that the historian had to recon¬ 
struct the life and achievements of the peoples.” Ranke 
wrote, “History must not be content to exhibit the outward 
succession of events, each in its own figure and coloring, but 
it must pierce into the deepest and most secret movements. 
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