The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-07-06
MIR. LANG ON ROOSEVELT.
And Readable? Asks the Famous
EssayiSt.
(Andrew Lang, in the London Morn
ing POst)

(Andrew Lang, in the London Morn
ing Post.)
Mr. Roosevelt, in his Romanes lee
ture at Oxford, "spoke of many
things, as the walrus proposed to do,
and especially of why empires "go to
the demniition bow-wows," in the
words Of a countryman of Machia-
velli. Personally, from my own read
Ing of history, l think that empires
"go to the crows" in the Athenian
phrase. because they are apt to bite
off more in their early days than they
can assimilate when they develop in
to democracies, as they mostly do.
This was the opinion expressed by AL
cibiades in a Romanes lecture Of his
own. reported, with manifest SYM
pathy, by Thucydides.
Mr.. Roosevelt touched a chord that
woke deeper and fuller response in
my soul when he spoke of the nature
Of history and of how 1t ought to be
written. If the facts reported by the
historian be not facts, be not true,
he said. then the book, however, at
tractive and entertaining. is not his
tory at all, though 1t may hold a re-
spectacle place on the crowded
shelves devoted to fiction. This is
very certain. but 1t is scarcely less
true that, as Mr.. Roosevelt added, If
history be not entertaining it is not
literature. Now, Mr.. Roosevelt de-
manded from history that 1t shall
play a double part. and be both true
and diverting, both science and liter
ature. If 1t Is not readable" it is
not literature; II it Is not true cat
least as far as 1t Is able') it Is not
science. Though this be a view pop
ular enough in itself. to construct q
history both literary and scientific
seems a task beyond the powers Of
modern intelligence. Mr.. 'Roosevelt's
demands try the historian too high
Nobody asks other scientific charac-
ters to be at once scientific and lit
erary; and few ask other gentlemen
of letters to be scientific. The alge.
braist, the chemist. the biologist mot
that ! know exactly what the biolo-
gist does), are not expected to be
entertaining, and but few, and these
deeply mistaken souls expect the
novelist to be scientific.
person who set out to write an
entirely agreeable history Of England
beginning with the Norman conquest,
found himself unable to proceed. He
could not in conscience deny that the
battle of Hastings was not a victory
for the English Army; yet the fact
was disagreeable and depressing to
young students, dampening their in
terest. After turning over in his mind
the propriety of making Harold re-
vive In the arms Of Edith Swan-neck,
recover health and turn up as Here
ward the Wake. the avenger of his
country. the would-be historian re-
nounced his task. Naturally a con-
scientious man, he could not bring
himself to be interesting and agree
able at the expense of truth.
Yet many historians-readable his
torians-do in milder way what this
author could not persuade himself to
undertake. Their only limit in the
way of fiction Is the generally known.
the common memories of the school
room. They must not deny that
Charles / had his head cut off. but.
with Lombroso, they say that Henry
VII cut off the heads Of his six wives.
because at this point the general
memory is rather hazy. In fact, the
accurate historian is Gas Mr.. Roose-
velt appeared, to this listener to sug-
gest) to accumulate large masses Of
facts. materials, to be handled later
by an interesting and readable his
torian, who will give us his own lit
erature blended with the science of
MS unreadable predecessor More, t.
MS work be science, it will he popu-
lar science, the mother of mischief.
AS Rasselas, Prince Of Abyssinia, was
convinced by his tutor that no man
can be a poet" so / am inclined to
thinK that no man can be a historian.