The Study of History [pp. 427-434]

THE STUDY OF HISTORY.
self, and casts a vivid light upon history
and the progress of man.
Let us now return to our original question. What is the use of studying history? and let us bring it down to specific
form by concrete illustrations.
Julius Caesar founded the Roman Empire. What of it? How does it concern
us? According to the proverb, Julius
Caesar is very dead indeed, and his empire is as dead as he. Why not Let the dead past bury its dead?
Why, above all, bother unfortunate
boys, who have plenty of live interests,
with the ghosts of a dead empire and its
dead founder? Really the reason is very
plain. Our life today, the world's religion, the world's law, and countless lesser
things are what they are because Caesar
founded the Roman Empire. It is not
alone because the Empire was founded,
but because it was founded by him.
There was that in the character of the
great Julius, and of his august nephew,
which gave special form to the Empire,
which made it what it was. Their personal touch was on it, and you cannot
understand the life of the world today,
even in some of its most practical aspects,
unless you understand fully, and in all
its bearings, the proposition that Julius
Caesar founded the Roman Empire.
Christopher Columbus discovered
America in 1492. Again, what of it?' As
long as America has been discovered and we
are living in it, what difference does it
make to us when it was discovered or by
whom? It might be said indeed that the
knowledge of the fact gave occasion for a
Columbian Fair in Chicago in 1893 with a
Midwinter appendage in San Francisco in
1894. But would not any other name to
conjure with have done as well? As a
matter of fact, the discovery of this continent, just before the claim of the Pope
to give away the lands of the earth had
lapsed, by a Spanish fleet under an Ital
ian admiral, has shaped the history of the
whole continent and gives form to our
daily life. Had the discovery been made
at another time and by another man, our
history, and so our present circumstances,
would have been quite different from
what they are. Try to buy some real
estate in this vicinity and you will find
that the personality of Columbus and the
will of Alexander VI. have very important bearings on the transaction.
I was recently engaged in reading the
papers handed in for entrance examinations in the University of California.
One of the questions to be answered was,
"What is a writ of habeas corpus?"
One answer was something like this,
"A writ of habeas corpus is an invention
of the Chinese in San Francisco by which
they are enabled to evade the just laws
of our government." This youngster
had evidently given more of his attention to our " metropolitan dailies" than
he had to English history. I fear he
may sometime have to learn from the
inside of a jail what he might have
learned much more comfortably from
some pleasant little book in the days of
his youth.
These illustrations will perhaps serve
to show that the study of history has
some very practical uses. Such uses are
innumerable and are of daily occurrence.
But no illustration can serve to show the
supreme and splendid use of the study of
history, its effect in expanding and
steadying the mind and character of the
student. As we study personal character in its bearing upon the progress of
man, as we study national character in
its development and decay, as we trace
changes of manners in thought and
action, as we watch the growth of institutions, and as we catch real though partial glimpses of the law by which these
things consist, we learn a lofty wisdom
which imparts to our judgment faith,
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