Munro—Some Tendencies in History. 707 
mind,’ I am quoting a man of affairs, the President of the 
United States,—‘by direct contact with the forces which 
really govern and modify the world from generation to gen- 
ation. There is more of a nation’s politics to be got out of 
its poetry than out of all its systematic writers upon public 
affairs and constitutions.’ ” “A literature is but the means 
by which the aspirations and ideals of a nation find expres¬ 
sion in an abiding form.” “No literature is merely fortui¬ 
tous or accidental, but springs from the very heart of the na¬ 
tion in which it lives.” A wide acquaintance with the lit¬ 
erary sources of any given period will enable the historian to 
enter into the life of that age and to realize its wonderful 
complexity. He will not be likely to select any single one of 
the sundryological interpretations of history, but will 
soberly try to discover which ones from the many divers 
ideals actuated the leaders and how far the masses were re¬ 
sponsive, and thus to determine why events took the course 
that they did. He will also learn incidentally many facts 
about the daily life and actions which will enable him to 
understand more fully the conditions of the age. A study 
of the Fabliaux , the laughable stories told in verse in the 
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, will illuminate the rise of 
the merchant class, the decline of the lesser nobility, the 
growth of opposition to the Church, the decay of feudalism 
and chivalry. Moreover, it will make the student realize 
that these unnamed and unknown merchants were real men, 
with a sense of humor and a point of view, in some respects, 
curiously like that of our own west in the latter half of the 
nineteenth century. 
Caution is necessary. Literary sources have been used 
more frequently and more fully for classical history than any 
other, mainly because until recently Greek and Roman his¬ 
tory have been given over to scholars better versed in the 
literature than in other sources. Their treasure trove has 
been rich, but their writings have often needed correction 
from the other material which has been preserved. The 
Monumentum Ancyranum , with its bald statements, is as 
necessary for the understanding of the Augustan Age as the 
great masterpieces of Vergil and Livy. Literary sources 
have been less used in the study of medieval and modern 
times, although not by any means wholly neglected. Pro- 
