The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-12-31
By EDGAR ILIFF.

History is only record of dead
things, but like old wood it can be
made to shed light and warmth by
setting fire to it with the torch of
life around us.
In common acceptance, to know his
tory is to memorize the dates of GER
tain kings, to remember particular de-
cls1ve battles, when some Pharaoh
reigned, when an ancient war began,
when a flood ragged, or when Joshua
made the sun stand still 1t has long
been held sure sign Of scholarship
when some prodigy could rattle off
ancient historical dates or tell us in
Latin that Cicero was cross-eyed. To
know history in this narrow scholastic
way is to dwell upon trifles. like the
famous antiquarian in Gil Bias" who
discovered that little children cried
in ancient Athens when they were
spanked; or like friend whose use
less reading led him to ask, "Oh, say,
did you know that King James, who
translated the Bible, had the measles
when four years old?" That is the
sum-tOtal of much that we call solid
reading" and the result of an evil
method Of teaching history.
History Depicts Life.
The true Interpretation of history is
life, to live it every day, to see it re-
peated under our very nose, to watch
it in the making all around us. His
torians do not make history. The
pen, which is said to be mightier than
the sword, has never yet ben potent
enough to create history. The pen
records the doings of men and women
who could not even write. These men,
history. Il feel said Lord Nelson,
that | am filter to do an action than
to describe it,
We read of great social movements
in the past and do not see our own
changing order. We do not realize
that long after we have gone to the
silent and eternal dust some historian
will class us in certain 'age" or
period" Of history, and describe the
social, political or economic transfer
nation we passed through without
enough sense on our part to see or
kfeel it, For this reason our idea Of
history makes us captves to a dead
past where we embalm heroes and
blind ourselves to the real heroisms
of our day. The past is a load of
dead wood. because we do not vitalize
II with life. To know only cold facts
is to freeze for lack of warmth. We
are too indolent to chop wood and
start fire. Let the dead past bury
it's dead" was a profound truth.
Date Learning Makes Apes.
. Teaching children history on the
s"Gradgrind" principle of facts, sir,
facts" has made US turn away as from
la plague. criminal was given
choice Of punishment between hanging
and reading history. He said. Hang
me-" And yet, history interspersed by
the life around us. visualized by ming
ling cheerfully with all of earth's chill
dren, as Shakespeare surely did, be
comes more thrilling than the novel,
which is only reflection as the moon
is a reflection of the sun. All healthy
and normal persons detest history as
she is wrote" or as ii is too often shot
ar us. To be forever calling up his
torcal dates, and springing upon us
with that reminds me-" Is to make
talking man a nuisance and to send
nervous people up an alley to escape !
the bombardment of Information"
The teaching Of history by drilling
In dates il to produce parrots and apes.
We neither observe or examine. We
are not critical but credulous. Our
:eachers and professors become phrase
~ougers. A learned theologian pro.