The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-29
TWO NOTABLE GATHERINGS
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to limit, the product of their times. But there is limit It is likewise true that an initiative agency belongs to the leaders of men, It is an eX- treme theory that relegates them exclusively to the category of effects Human beings are not automatons. Especially at signal epochs in history turning points are marked by rallying about persons. From them goes cre- ative energy, inspiring and guiding their fellows. Let sociology, the philoso- phy of history, be rated at it's full val ue. In the drama of human affairs there is an endless appeal to psychological curiosity, a constant stimulus to po- etic feeling. And so even such trag- edy as that in which Mary of Scotland bore part will always enlist human sympathy, and impel to researches hav- ing for their object to solve the ques- tions in doubt. It is a dry-as-dust the ory that would drive out these inquir- ics from the domain of history.
 It is one office of the historian to weigh in the scales of justice the mer- its of historic persons. It belongs to him to gauge the qualities of the men and women who act their parts on the public stage. When Schiller wrote Die Weltgeschichte ist das Welt-Gericht,' all that the poet meant was that the hopes of the hereafter are of them- selves an adequate reward for one who repels the allurements of sense, even should these hopes turn out to be illu- sive But the phrase of Schiller is an apt expression of another idea, It will serve to describe the office that history performs in calling to her bar the men whose career she passes in review. Surely, it is q most responsible office, For do we not owe to the dead the same measure of justice that we owe to the living? Shall not the departed, if we speak of them at all, be right eously dealt with?
 One thing fitted to remind a histor- ian of his responsibility in assuming the office of a judge, is glance at the discordance among those who dis charge this function--a conflict often so marked as to partake of a humorous element. An instance or two, the first that occur to me, will illustrate this remark. Carlyle winds up his estimate of Oliver Cromwell in these words "A great light, one of our few authentic solar luminaries, going down now amid the clouds of death. Like the setting of a great victorious summer sun; its course now finished Here is a life-battle nobly done Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; blessed are the valiant that have lived in the Lord" Now hear how Clarendon closes his estimate of Cromwell: Tn word, as he had all the wickedness for which damnation is denounced and for which hell-fire is prepared, so he had some virtues which have caused the memory of some men in all ages to be celebrated; and he will be looked upon by posterity as brave, bad man." All know how this prophecy has been verl- fied One more example of contradlc- tory verdicts. MT. Froude, at the end of his account of King Henry VIII, while not denying that he had serious faults, assures us that far deeper blemishes would be but as scars upon the features of sov- ereign who, in trying times, sustained mo- ply the honor of the English name, and carried the commonwealth securely through the hardest crisis in it's his- tory The monarch whom the historian praises in this fashion is characterized by Macaulay as king whose char acter may be best described by saying that he was despotism itself personi- fied''; and contrast MT. Froude's enco- mium with the words of Sir James Macintosh, who, after relating the ex- cautions of More and Anne BOleyn, calmly observes, Tn these two direful deeds Henry approached, perhaps, as near to the ideal standard of perfect wickedness as the infirnities of human nature will allow"
 We have nowadays two safeguards against the misjudgment of persons, that give us an advantage over writers in the past. It is possible to find out a great deal more about historical per- sonages than it was formerly. The opening of archives with treasures of information which have been hitherto locked up, the publication of letters and of documents of every sort in private hands, pour a flood of light in cases where only defective knowledge was once possible. Along with this invalu- able gain the sense of obligation to spare no labor in efforts to get at the truth is approximately increased. At present, TO author with any ability ap- preaching that of Hume would, like him. be deterred, as he was, by sheer indolence from rising from his chair to consult the authorities on his shelves, if not literally within reach. But of course no amount of investigation will answer if there be wanting spirit of fairness. In this particular we may take credit, on the whole, for marked advance. Certainly the number of dis passionate students. who are in quest of truth alone, is larger now than it ever was before. Yet, it is pleasant to remember that Thucyddes, writing in so remote a time, is, in this respect as well as in so many others, a model. Grote maintains that he was in fault for not preventing Amphipolis from be- ing captured by the Spartans. He ar gues that Thucydides was too slow in coming to its relief l once asked a profound scholar, the late President Woolsey, for his opinion on this question. He answered, T have such confidence in the absolute truth fulness of Thucydides that, were he really chargeable with fault as Grote alleges, I believe he would have avow- ed it." It is pleasant to read the more recent comment of Professor Jebb on this passage in the life of the prince of historians: There is some presump- five evidence of carelessness; but we