It means the history of English
institutions, of the social, the intellectual, and the religious life
of our forefathers--it means a great deal more than the life of our
sovereigns, their wars, their virtues or their follies. Unhappily
historic studies in England, notwithstanding the splendid impetus
that has been given to them of late by the brilliant achievements of
some philosophic enquirers, receive but scant encouragement, and for
the most part a man's labour must be his own reward. In our
elementary schools History is almost utterly ignored. A whole people
is rapidly breaking with the past from sheer ignorance that there is
any past that is worth knowing. Who shall estimate the immeasurable
harm that must be wrought to a nation that has lost touch with the
past? Let men but believe, to their shame, that
The glories of our birth and state
Are shadows, not substantial things,
and what becomes of patriotism? Granted, if you will, that English
history has been made too often a dry and repulsive study by those
who have undertaken to teach it and write it; need it remain so? It
must remain so as long as we keep to the old lines and content
ourselves with the old methods. What is wanted to make any science
_interesting_ is that it should push its inquiries into new
fields of research. The means and appliances, and opportunities for
pursuing historical researches open to those whose youth is not all
behind them, are such as we, their seniors, never dreamt of when we
were in our early manhood.
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