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

viIl ANTIQUARIAN HISTORY 247
interest, and that any practical use it may have
is thrown in, but not guaranteed. This idea is
characteristically academic, one of those cloistral
inanities which flourish, preposterous and unashamed, in the congenial air of universities.
But, further, we must not be misled into ignoring or underrating the immediate practical value
which the study of history possesses; and this is
the point which I would invite you especially to
consider. The most important and able ancient
historians, although some of them had antiquarian
interests, held that the purpose of studying history
must be sought in its practical value, and in immediate relations to life. But their idea of what that
practical value consisted in, necessarily differs from
our view of the matter at the present stage of
man's development. The experience of the race
and the advance of scientific thought have transformed our ideas of our own position in the universe;
and now the human or practical interest in history
turns out to be far more vital and deeply founded
than the ancients, with their outlook on life, could
have suspected.
Let us examine more closely the ancient doctrine. Both Thucydides and Polybius based their
view that history possesses direct utility for men of
affairs, on the assumption that similar situations
recur, and that the problems of the past will come
up again for solution in the future. Thucydides,
according to his habit, states this doctrine in the
briefest form; Polybius explains the principle with