§ 12.]

College Work.

25

chosen thoughts, but an equal opportunity to weigh opinions and set them over against each other. (See § 58 for a description of a method of collateral reading known as the "conference system.") The college is also a place where written work of all kinds is most easily carried out. In later pages (§§ 65-73) the effort will be made to describe several appropriate systems in detail. Without some such work, — topics, papers, special reports, written recitations, essays or theses, - the training element of the subject is lost. In American history such work is especially advisable; in few subjects is there such a variety of topics of every degree of difficulty, many of them as yet quite unwrought. The college has also an atmosphere of interest in political and historical matters, which makes possible many side devices for lighting up the subject, such as lectures, public debates, discussions, and the like.

It is possible also in college to specialize in American history, to take courses in the theory of government, in constitutional law, in American diplomacy, in financial and economic history, in American government, and in federal government, as well as in American literature; and to make a special study of some one period or topic. The college is the place for laying a deep foundation on a broad sub-structure. Here also is the great opportunity to connect American history with that of other countries.

§ 12. Investigation.

The present accumulated knowledge of history is due to the investigators who have examined and correlated the sources of history, and then have generalized upon them. Investigation is the most difficult kind of historical study, but it is perhaps the most valuable sort of training, because it requires patience and thoroughness in searching for material, judgment in selecting out of it the cogent facts, a peculiar training of the analytical powers in arranging and classifying material, a high degree of mental force in making generalizations, and quick imagination in so stating the results as to appeal to other minds.

These advantages may be gained throughout all the parts of the educational field. The youngest pupil who begins to study

history for himself, may be taught to find and to bring forward a contribution of facts got somewhere outside of the text-book. As he progresses, more emphasis may be laid on the necessity of getting back of secondary books in order to settle particular points. A pupil very early may be taught to distinguish between contemporary accounts and records, and later works based on such material. The topical method (§ 67) may be so used as to instil this principle.

In college, where the object is to get a general view of history, and where students are expected to read and digest much from standard works, the benefits of investigation can best be gained by practice in going to the bottom of very limited subjects, so as to be prepared in later life to look up historical points, or intelligently to review the work of others.

In the graduate school, and often in the upper classes of the college, where there is an opportunity for specialization, historical investigation becomes the most important element in the student's training. He must learn to exhaust the literature of the subject, to use all the available material, and to make himself master of that which he undertakes to investigate. A good standard for such a student to set before himself is to consider, from the beginning, how he can state the results in a manner most likely to be useful to others. Whether he aims at publication or not, his work should be written with reference to the reader.

American history lends itself readily to investigation in all grades, because the material is almost all in English, and because it is so available for pupils of every age. There are various sets

of leaflets adapted for school use, and extracts from the works of the early narrators and travelers are in many places available for school reading. Most colleges have a set of the invaluable documents published by the United States Government, and many have full sets of colonial records. Some of the larger universities have access to such unsurpassed collections as those of the Boston Public Library, the Carter-Brown Library in Providence, the Lenox Library in New York, the Peabody Library of Baltimore, and the collections of the various state historical societies.

§ 13.]

Investigation.

§ 13. Study without a Teacher.

27

Since the material of history is to be found in considerable part in print, the subject is one which can be carried on without a teacher and even without access to a large library. The admirable work of several societies for directing people by correspondence has proved that the study of history may be made both profitable and pleasant to persons far away from schools and universities; and the Chautauqua systems of directed home study have widely extended the love for the study of history. A distinction must be made between reading history and studying it. Such writers as Macaulay and Parkman may be read as one would read other masterpieces of English literature, and will leave a distinct impression upon the mind; but the study of history implies a concentration upon a field small enough to permit the use of various parallel authorities.

It is of little use to try to study general history by one's self. The best books are brief and cannot present the warm picture of men and stirring events which may be obtained from lectures and extended study. American history, however, is well adapted for home study. The first necessity is to choose some brief books which cover the ground in a summary fashion, so that the student may have in his mind the dimensions of the subject; then comes the process of widening, the working out of the ground plan of the historical edifice. For this purpose the students should choose some of the standard histories such as are suggested in paragraph 20 below or through the topical analyses (§ 16b). In the better brief books will be found lists of classified authorities. It is desirable that a student should own his books, so that he may annotate them in the margins as he goes on. Another excellent exercise is to put into the margins a running analysis of the book : it sharpens the faculties to consider what is the author's precise intention in each successive paragraph; and whenever the reader has occasion to use the same book again he will be surprised to find how the argument comes back to him through his abstract. Many students have derived benefit from the practice of writing out in a brief form the ideas which have been gathered from

reading on some previous day. Such a practice continued for a few weeks will almost invariably strengthen the memory and improve one's powers of application.

Having thus gone over several books on a period, the student begins to find that one effaces another; the methods, the order, the proportions, of one writer do not agree with those of the next; and the knowledge of men and events so laboriously acquired begins to dissolve in the very multiplicity of facts. Hence, it is necessary for the student at home to make up some written outline of his subject, a sort of table of contents of his questions, arranged in what seems to him a logical order. This outline will be in a sense the student's own history. If several persons are working together in classes there may be some sub-division of labor. Thus, in studying the administration of Jackson one person may well take up Jackson's personal character; another his relations with the civil service; another his bank controversy ; another the nullification episode; another the surplus-revenue question; and each may then communicate his results to the others.

The student at home should not neglect the use of sources. Presumably he will not have material so abundant that he may base his study upon it; but he ought to read enough to give him that flavor of original accounts which is indispensable for the right understanding of history. For instance, after going over a brief account of the Confederation and then reading Curtis or McMaster, a student should read Washington's letter of 1783 to the governors, the Northwest Ordinance, and Patrick Henry's speech in the Virginia Convention on the results of the Confederation. While it is not likely that the student will reach different conclusions from those of the standard writers, he will certainly come into contact with the men of the time which he is studying.

It is difficult to get a sharp and permanent impression from general books, or even from sources, without some system of note- ́ taking. On the other hand, students are apt to do too much of this sort of writing; they copy out long, exact quotations from books which are perfectly accessible; they do not know how to digest the author's statements and to reduce them to a brief form.

§ 14.]

Home Study.

29

Notes should be a summary rather than a digest; they should state the main points with sufficient illustration to make the argument clear. The principal danger of the lonely student is always that he will read too much and absorb too little. Without some system of brief note-taking and outlining, the subject will quickly disappear. One means of holding it is for the student from time to time to write some historical narrative, using in part such original material as may be accessible to him. Another is to take every opportunity to listen to historical lectures, and so to add the element of personal association to that of knowledge of facts.

§ 14. Collateral Subjects.

As has several times been suggested above (§ 3) the study of American history does not stand alone; it should be associated throughout with the study of kindred subjects and of other fields of history. Geography cannot be too much emphasized; a knowledge of the elementary physical geography of North America is essential for an understanding of the course of settlement and the distribution of races and communities inland. Political geography

is founded upon physical, and is an index of the interplay of nations. Since the most absorbing questions of American history have been social and economic, a knowledge of the principles of economics is necessary for teachers and desirable in an elementary form for pupils. American literature, as illustrating the spirit of the people, is also a part of American history.

Of the histories of other countries, that of England comes nearest to ours, and up to 1776 the two are practically parts of each other. France was also for a century and a half an active political factor in North America, and the French Revolution is closely connected with the American. Spain was long a rival and enemy of the English colonies, and by the possession of Cuba is still important in the history of the United States. The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany furnish valuable points of comparison with our federal system; and in the Napoleonic Wars the United States was a sufferer and at length a participant.