Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1870-02-09
The Study Of History.

To the mass Of students the study
OF history must commend itself, not
as one of professional utility, but as
part OF q course of selfculture. The
study even Of physical science com.
mends itself on no other ground, since
the number of those who will ever
make a professional use of geology,
chemistry, or anatomy must be limit.
ed. And if a knowledge of physical
science is necessary TO selfculture, as
unquestionably it is, equally necessary
is knowledge of history. If it is
essential TO our intellectual develop
ment, to our moral well-being, to our
due discharge of the part assigned to
us in life, that we should be placed in
our right relations 10 the material
world and the lower orders of animals,
it is surely at least as essential that
we should be placed in our right
relations 10 humanity. -four powers
of observation require to be cultivated
by scientific pursuits, so do our pow
ers of moral reasoning and our moral
sympathies require to bc cultivated
by their appropriate training, which
is the study of history.
An objection has been sometimes
taken to history, on the ground OF its
uncertainty. This objection comes
from physical science, the extreme
devotees of which sometimes affect to
doubt all human testimony, and to
maintain that nothing is worthy of
belief but that which can be repro
duced by expcriment--forgetting that
they have no better ground than
human testimony for believing that
the experiment has been made before
with the same result. 1t is true our
historical judgments are continually
being modified; our conceptions OF
history as a whole are changing; some
supposed facts are being eliminated, 1
while others arc coming to light in |
the course of historical research. But
may not something analogous be said
of physical science 7 Are not her
theories also continually undergoing
change Where are the astronomical I
conceptions yesterday They have 4
given way TO the nebular hypothesis,
which, in its turn, may possibly be
overthrown or absorbed by some other
hypothesis, leaving, no doubt, n
residuum Of truth, just as successive
theories Of history leave, residuum
of trnth, though no one of them can
be said to be final. History is the
scene of controversy; but is not
science also
1t has been truly said that the most
important facts in history are the best
ascertained. 1t is not about the great
steps in the progress of humanity, or
about their connections with each
other, that we are in doubt. 1t is
about personal details, which, though
not devoid of moral interest, are of
secondary Importance, and the discus
sion Of which wonld be trivial if it
did not exercise the judicial faculties
of the historian.
The position that man is TO be
studied historically, il it be taken TO
mean that man is 10 be studied only
in history, is untrue. A simple
inspection Of historical phenomena
could never enable us to discern good
from evil in human action, or furnish
any standard progress; we could never
have attained the idea Of progress
itself in that way. But taken in the
sense that knowledge of the history
of humanity is essential to right
view of any question respecting man,
the position is o most momentous and
truth, and one the percep.
tion of which has already begun pro
foundly to modify moral and political
philosophy, and may further modify
them TO an almost indefinite extent. ,
This prevalence of the historical
method in the study of man is clearly
with the prevalence of the
Darwiuian theory respecting the for. .
nation OF species IN natural science.
as well as with our new views Of
geology and cosmogony, and with {
The discovery ofthose sidereal motions
which indicate that progress is the
law, not only of the earth, but of the ,
heavens. The whole amounts to :
great reconstruction of the sum Of our /,
knowledge, and Of our conceptions !
Of the universe. ,