Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading. George Park Fisher
Language is a memorial of the past, of the more value since it is not the product of deliberate contrivance. Comparative philology, following languages back to their earlier stages and to the parent stocks, unveils the condition of society at remote epochs. It not only describes the origin of nations, but teaches something respecting their primitive state.
6. Histories written at former periods, but subsequently to the events described in them, are a secondary but valuable source of historical knowledge. This is especially true when their authors had access to traditions that were nearer their fountain, or to literary monuments which have perished.
HISTORICAL CRITICISM.—Historical scholars are much more exacting as regards evidence than was formerly the case. The criticism of what purports to be proof is more searching. At the same time, what is called "historical divination" can not be altogether excluded. Learned and sagacious scholars have conjectured the existence of facts, where a gap in recorded history—"the logic of events"—seemed to presuppose them; and later discoveries have verified the guess. This is analogous to the success of Leverrier and Adams in inferring the existence of an unknown planet, which the telescope afterwards discovered. An example of historical divination on a large scale is furnished by the theories of the great German historian, Niebuhr, in respect to early Roman history. He propounded opinions, however, which in many particulars fail to obtain general assent at present.
CREDIBILITY OF HISTORY.—At the opposite pole from credulity is an unwarrantable historical skepticism. The story is told of Sir Walter Raleigh, that when he was a prisoner in the Tower, and was engaged in writing his History of the World, he heard the sounds of a fracas in the prison-yard. On inquiry of those who were concerned in it, and were on the spot, he found so many contradictions in their statements that he could not get at the truth. Whereupon, it occurred to him as a vain thing to undertake to describe what had occurred on the vast theater of the world, when he could not ascertain the truth about an event occurring within a bow-shot. The anecdote simply illustrates, however, the difficulty of getting at the exact truth respecting details—a difficulty constantly exemplified in courts of justice. The fact of the conflict in the court of the Tower, the general cause, the parties engaged, the consequences—as, for example, what punishment was inflicted—were undisputed. The great facts which influence the course of history, it is not difficult to ascertain. Moreover, as against an extravagant skepticism, it may be said that history provides us with a vast amount of authentic information which contemporaries, and even individual actors, were not possessed of. This is through the bringing to light of documents from a great variety of sources, many of which were secret, or not open to the view of all the leaders in the transactions to which they refer. The private correspondence of the Protestant leaders—Luther, Melanchthon, Cranmer, etc.—the letters of Erasmus, the official reports of the Venetian ambassadors, the letters of William the Silent and of Philip II., put us in possession of much information, which at the time was a secret to most of the prominent participants in the events of the sixteenth century. The correspondence of Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, John Adams, Wolcott, Pickering, etc., introduces us into the secret counsels of the American political leaders of that day. Numerous facts conveyed from one to another under the seal of privacy, and not known to the others, are thus revealed to us.
On the nature and value of tradition, a very valuable discussion is that of EWALD, History of Israel, vol. i. pp. 13–38; Sir G. C. LEWIS, Essays on the Credibility of Early Roman History, in which Niebuhr's conclusions are criticised; A. Bisset, Essays on Historical Truth. On the sources of history, Art. by GAIRDNER in The Contemporary Review, vol. xxxviii.
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY.—Political Geography, which describes the earth as inhabited, and as parceled out among nations, has a close relation to history. Without a distinct idea of the position of places and the boundaries of countries, historical narrations are enveloped in a sort of haze. France, for example, is a name with very different meanings at different dates in the past. Unless the varying uses of the word Burgundy are understood, important parts of European history are left in confusion.
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.—Even more helpful is Physical Geography, which surveys the earth in its three great divisions—land, sea, and air—without reference to lines of political demarkation. The configuration of the different portions of the globe, with the varieties of climate, the relations of mountain and plain, of land and water, have strongly affected the character of nations and the currents of history. In regions extremely hot or extremely cold man can not thrive, or build up a rich and enduring civilization. The occupations of a people are largely dependent on its situation—whether it be maritime or away from the sea—and on peculiarities of soil and temperature. The character of the Nile valley, and its periodical inundation, is a striking illustration of the possible extent of geographical influences. The peninsular and mountainous character of Greece went far to shape the form of Greek political society. The high plateau which forms the greater portion of Spain, with the fertile belts of valley on the Atlantic and Mediterranean border, have helped to determine the employments and the character of the Spanish people. Had the physical characteristics of the Spanish peninsula been essentially different, the success of Wellington in expelling the French, with the forces at his disposal, would not have been possible. Were there a chain of mountains along our Atlantic coast as near as are the Andes to the Pacific, what different results would have arisen from the English settlements in North America! The Alpine barrier in the north of Italy was indispensable to the building-up and maintenance of the dominion of ancient Rome. Of the great basin or plain between the Alps and the Apennines, open to the sea only on the east, through which flows one great river, fed by streams from the mountains on either side, Dr. Arnold says: "Who can wonder that this large and richly watered plain should be filled with flourishing cities, or that it should have been contended for so often by successful invaders?" While the agency of climate, soil, and other physical circumstances may easily be exaggerated, that agency must be duly considered in accounting for historical phenomena.
The best historical Atlas is the copious German work of VON SPRUNER. FREEMAN'S Historical Geography of Europe is a work of great value. DROVSEN'S Allg. Hist. Atlas. Smaller atlases are those of PUTZGER, Rhode, Appleton's Hist. Atlas, the International, and the Collegiate. Smaller still, Keith Johnston's Crown Atlases and Half-Crown Atlases. On Mediæval History, Labberton's Atlas; also, Koeppen: in Ancient Geography, SMITH'S work, KIEPERT'S, Long's. On Physical Geography, GUYOT'S text-books; Vaughan's Connection between History and Physical Geography, in Contemp. Review, vol. v.; Hall's Methods of Studying History, etc., p. 201 seq., Encycl. Brit., Art. Geography.
CHRONOLOGY.—An exact method of establishing dates was slowly reached. The invention of eras was indispensable to this end. The earliest definite time for the dating of events was established at Babylon—the era of Nabonassar, 747 B.C. The Greeks, from about 300 B.C., dated events from the first recorded victory at the Olympic games, 776 B.C. These games occurred every fourth year. Each Olympiad was thus a period of four years. The Romans, though not until some centuries after the founding of Rome, dated from that event; i.e., from 753 B.C. The Mohammedan era begins at the Hegira, or flight of Mohammed from Mecca, 622 A.D. The method of dating from the birth of Jesus was introduced by Dionysius Exiguus, a Roman abbot, about the middle of the sixth century. This epoch was placed by him about four years too late. This requires us to fix the date of the birth of Christ at 4 B.C.
The day was the simplest and earliest division of time. The week has been in use for this purpose in the East from time immemorial. It was not introduced among the Romans until after the spread of Christianity in the Empire. The month was the earlier unit for periods of greater length. To make the lunar and the solar years correspond, and to determine the exact length of the solar year, was a work of difficulty, and was only gradually effected. Julius Cæsar reformed the calendar in 46 B.C., the date of the Julian era. This made the year eleven minutes too long. Pope Gregory XIII. corrected the reckoning, in 1582, by ordering Oct. 5th to be called the 15th, and instituted the "Gregorian calendar." The change, or the "New Style," was subsequently adopted by Great Britain (in 1752), and by the other Protestant nations. The difference for the present century between the Old and the New Style is twelve days: during the last century it was eleven. The Julian civil year began with