Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

Abstract

TO scientific readers the most important communication in this volume is that by Sir Richard Gregory, entitled “Science in the History of Civilisation.” There are, the author tells us, two methods of approaching the history of science—that of the specialist, who regards it purely as growth of the knowledge of material objects and phenomena in the course of time; and that of the historian of human culture, who dwells on its influence upon social and economic conditions. The object of this paper is to plead for a closer co-ordination of these separate points of view in works of general history. This has been attempted to some extent by Voltaire, Buckle, and Lecky, and in more recent times by Mr. and Mrs. Whetham and by Mr. F. S. Marvin; but some modern speculations have served only to darken knowledge. The late Mr. B. Kidd traced the cause of the evolution of society to the continuous action of religious beliefs, but Dr. Russel Wallace pointed out that the doctrine of progressive ethical impulse does not explain how the rude struggles of 2000 years ending in the sixteenth century could have tended to increase and develop the altruistic and ethical sentiments of early races in their struggle for existence. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. Fourth Series. Vol. xi. Pp. v + 247. (London: Royal Historical Society, 1919.)