The ancient Greek historians (Harvard lectures) by J. B. Bury.

vIIi HISTORY FOR ITS OWN SAKE 245

thing beyond the facts themselves. In other words,
it assumes that history is a science. The study of
natural phenomena intimately affects society in its
ethics, religion, and politics; the study of historical
phenomena must affect them too. But like physical
sciences and all other branches of knowledge, history
requires for its scientific development complete
freedom and independence; its value is annulled
and its powers are paralysed if it consents to be
ancillary to politics, ethics, or theology; in order to
fulfil its function, it must (like all sciences) be treated
as if it were an end itself. This is the true value
and, so far as I can see, the only value of the cry,
" History for its own sake!" inscribed on the banner
under which history has made such a striking
advance in the nineteenth century. But this value,
I repeat, is only that of a regulative principle; it J
concerns only the methods and immediate aims of
historians; it does not express the final purpose of
their labours.
The Greeks were the founders of antiquarianism,
and in a previous lecture I spoke of this as one
of their precious contributions to human progress.
Once it was started, it was pursued instinctively,
unreflectingly, without asking the question, why?
But a general answer was given in the circumstances
of its origin. It was founded, as I said, by the Aristotelian school of philosophy, and was the result of
the importance which Aristotle attached to all
phenomena, as things worth study and possessing
significance for man's synthesis of the universe.