Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-13
For the RECORD UNION.
The Necessity and Object of the Study OF
General History.
By Rabbi G, Taubenhaus

past 0llQ OCl14Ad b44O 1870 -
our birth are thousands of years of struggle
and achievements of defeat and victory OF
very large portion of humanity Should
man be ignorant of all that happened and
came to pass before him? Providence has
arranged it otherwise. Not only have we
the Unborn desire of obtaining knowledge
concerning those who preceded US, and the
events and institutions, customs and hab-
its of bygone times, but we have also the
means OF gratifying this desire TO large
extent.
When civilization dawned upon human
kind, men began to impart some of their
experience to coming generations, and to
keep an account, scanty and deficient as II
was. of important events. As civilization
grew brighter and brighter, and spread ex-
tensively over large portions of the earth,
the historical record became enlarged and
reliable in the same proportion, so that IN
our days we can look into the vista of the
past to the early days of mankind, and not
withstanding the dust of ages, we can see
the march of ancient nations, their rise and
fall, their merits and blemishes.
1t is true that we cannot know all that
has TRANSFERRED, worthy of notice as it might
have been, in the vast laboritorium OF busy
mankind. Many a period has gone by
without leaving footprints behind. Many
a century is shrouded in the dimness oil
uncertainty. Many great man has gone
to the grave, left his work but not his
name, and the long chain of events seems
often broken by the absence of connect
ing link. But there is in general history as
much of Indispensable information and
good advice as we need for our enlighten-
ment, our guidance and our hope. l said
for our enlightenment, guidance and hope,
because history has mission.
Its object is not qualification of our in
quisitive nature, nor is il to fill our mind
with facts to exhibit them boastfully in So
ciety. History is no vain thing. The most
OF its sections are full Of the sobs and signs
of struggling humanity. The most of its
chapters have been written with the preci-
Gus blood of the human kind; in most of
its parts it is the sad tale of the suffering
man of the past. Its mission is to instruct,
TO rectify and to refine.
Alexander the Great, we are told, always
carried with him the Odyssey, and had it
under his pillow in sleep, because he
looked up to Achilles with great admira-
ton as his noble model by whom he was
aroused to the brilliant career of heroism.
Cesar was once found weeping while read
ing the life of Alexander, becagse, he said,
the great Macedonian when at the age of
Caesar had accomplished more than the
conqueror of Gallia. With similar earnest
ness and accessibility history should be
studied With view OF being enlightened
and of improving upon our nature.
History properly studied widens i'm
mensely the prospect of our mind and an
nexes to the little span of our days the ex-
perience of thousands of years. 1t shows
us how helpless the present would be with
out the most strenuous efforts of the past.
Every great movement, every benefcent
institution, every happy idea, as well as
everything mean and base, has its origin
in the past. There is no such thing as
chance. As in nature the relation of cause
and effect is obvious, so the same law is
observable in the affairs of mankind. The
simple minded may consider history a
mere aggregation OF facts, but to the
thoughtful man these facts are links fast
ened to each other, forming 4 chain which
every generation enlarges.
1t may safely be said that every Ievolu-
tionary occurrence of historical import at
the present day is connected with the
events of very remote date of general his
tory. If our age is great it is so by pro-
gressiveness, by continuing and improving
upon what have been wrought and accom-
plished in former ages; IN short, by
wonderful evolutionary process. Follow
ing the historical thread many events can
be traced to the doings of man in the early
periods of his existence.
Instead of going into details for illustra-
ton, let US take a general view of our age.
It is called a wonderful age, and deserv-
ingly so. Look at it from any point of
view, intellectual, moral or political, and
it is entitled to much of the praise
which is lavished upon it. That it has its
lapses, imperfections and deformities, that
it is far from being the golden age which
religion promises and poetry sings, cannot
be disputed. But Notwithstanding all its
blemishes and shortcomings, it is a great,
industrious and productive age. It is great
because tyranny is constrained, super
stition loses ground and national and re-
ligious prejudices abate; because the
king and the priest are weak, ard the peo-
pie are strong, schools increase in number,
and the artist, scientist, discoverer and in
ventor are well paid because man ac-
customs himself to work more with
intellect than with muscle, invention takes
the place of the latter, the book of nature
is read with cautious diligence, and science
goes cheerfully to meet her older and royal
sister, religion; because justice and charity
are shielded as the two most sacred affairs,
the rights of the weak are protected and
charitable institutions are multiplied to
raise the fallen, to care for the sick, to pro-
tect the widow and the orphan, to assist
the poor and the needy, and to show mercy
even to the unconscious animal. Has it
always been so? History answers en-
phatically, no There are, even to this
day, specimens Of humanity that hold out
to us a mirror of the nudity of man in
general in remote antiquity. We look
with disdain or pity at the Indian or New
Zealander; not better than his condition
has ours been. / say ours, not only as a
Jew, but as a citizen of cultured world, a
child of the last decades of the nineteenth
century, partaker of the many blessed
OF our age.
About four centuries ago, when the great
Genoasean begged on his knees the aid of
the Queen of Spain 10 enable him to sail
through the Atlantic 10 a distant shore,
America was o great wilderness, and in
Europe the people were grooming under
the oppression of tyranny and a shameful
feudal system, seeking and searching the
means whereby to better their condition,
and about two thousand years ago the |
fathers Of those European nations that are |
now high up in civilization were rowing
from place to place as the wild Celtic and |
Teutonic tribes. The Romans were in a |
terrible mental condition about seven hun
dred wears before the Christian era The |
Greeks, who in the annals of human ex-
cellence shine out as the illustrious teach |
ers of the fine arts, were about thousand |
years in a deplorable state of rudeness and |
inurbanity About four thousand years |
ago there was only one little spot on the |
earth upon which the day of civilization
was slowly breaking, and that spot was |
Egypt. When, therefore, we look into the
deep background OF time from the illu-
mined proscenium of the present day, how
great does our age appear.
But who made the age what it is? We? |
The historian answers, all those genera
tons that preceded us, and have taken an |
active part in the great drama of mankind |
have given us enormous help and assistance. !
the inexhaustible energy, |
the unflinching zeal and the laudable eff !
forts, our age could not have recorded the |
performance of so many wonders had not !
Il - +o1~