Famous History Research Articles

The Future Uses of History

IT is easy to say that prophecy is vain, and literary prophecy the most insecure of all. Twenty-two years before the French Revolution, David Hume declared that the writings of Rousseau had once for all been consigned to perpetual neglect and oblivion. T'he same acute critic declared confidently that posterity would regard John Home's Douglas as the chief of English tragedies. But reluctant as any historical student must be to assume the totally different functions of the prophet, it is not difficult to show that, if it is his business to occupy himself chiefly with the raw materials of history, he must inevitably try to peer forward somewhat into the future of the historical art. He has no other course. The Guide to the Materials for American History in the Public Record Office of Great Britain, of which we published a volume the other day, is not intended for the benefit of the historian whose book is published today or tomorrow. It comes too late for him. He will say of it as the Abbe de Rene Vertot, author of a once famous History of the Siege of Malta, said when new materials were shown him which upset his narrative before it was published, Monsieur, mon siege est fait. Several years must pass before any considerable portion of the materials we have listed at the Public Record Office has been examined by historical students, still more years before the fresh facts in them have found their way into historical monographs or articles, still more before they are incorporated into the general histories. In the field of history, indeed, the advancement of learning may be likened to the advance of an army. The workers in organized institutions of research must go before, like pickets or scouting parties making a reconnaissance. Then, after some interval, comes the light cavalry of makers of doctoral

Historical Currents in America

DURING the dismal years following the Civil War many young Americans seemed to despair of finding true culture in a land of reconstruction and railroad wars, of the bloody shirt and money madness. They fled to Europe in the hope that there they might find release, refinement, and cultured peace. Some of them happened into the famous seminars of certain German universities. Much impressed by what they heard and did there, they determined to carry this component of true culture back to America. Returning to this country they undertook to promulgate the superior German ways in seminars initially at Johns Hopkins (1876) and eventually at every graduate school in the country. One result of all this was a revolution in American historical thought and practice. The new historiography was given the unlikely name of history ;1 and in accordance with its dictate olderstandards of historical writing were rejected. It became the practice to scoff at the older works-at the literary masterwork of Parkman, the democratic epic of Bancroft, the classics of Prescott and Motley. Whatever virtue these may have had as literature or as thought, they failed to measure up to the new standard of scientific history. Committed in each case to some supposedly unscientific preconception about and its values, such pseudo-historians failed, it was said, to record the past wie es eigentlich gewesen. These four German words, more quoted by his-

Europeans' Understanding and Interpretations Concerning Japanese Feudalism Before the Restoration

Europeans who came to Japan during the 300 years that elapsed between the beginning of Xavier's missionary work and the Restoration have failed to understand the organisation and character of Japanese feudalism in spite of their stay among the society filled up with feudalistic air. That was 0 because the Jesuits who could freely move about in the interior of Japan and had the advantage of studying the Japanese life were not much interested in secular matters and the Dutchmen who were eager to know in detail the conditions of Japan for the convenience of trade were prevented from getting the necessary information by the strict policy of Tokugawa rulers.The Japanese country was during the sixteenth century divided into domains' of feudal lords. Christian missionaries were under the impression that the lords with whom they came in contact were the Kings of their lands and the vassals under the kings were feudal aristocrats. The merchants they thought were of higher grade than the farmers. Valignano who was in Japan at the time of the famous resurvey of land by the order of Hideyoshi Toyotomi wrote in his History of Japanese Christianity about the nature of fiefs of Daimyo and the revenue therefrom. This is minutely described and contains a few informations not handed dawn to us from other sources ; but his understanding that the owner of the land was the Emperor and not the farmer was not correct.Under the Tokugawa the centralisation was firmly established and the lords submitted to this strong power. Caron classified Daimyo under Tokugawa regime according to the amount of income from their fiefs into the five ranks of European feudal lords ; but this distinction did not exist in feudalism of our country.That Kaempfer, the author of the famous History of Japan, judged Shogun as the Emperor was under the political circumstances at the time quite natural and unblamable, and that he esteemed Tsunayoshi Tokugawa as the sovereign having supreme power based on absolutism (just like Louis XIV of France) is also a possible mistake. However, his statements about ownership and cultivation of land of, Japanese farmers are to the point. A few lines in Marx's Capital regarding feudalistic land ownership of Japan which is valued by some as a signpost in comparative study of Japanese and European feudalism in present day Japan is probably based on this Kaempfer's statement. Siebold, who was the first to use the term Feudalism in writing Japanese history, considered that of Japan as originated by Jimmu Tenno and that the institution of sixty six provinces under the Mikado were essentially feudalistic. The complicated course of transition from the bureaucracy under Mikado to the feudal system under Shogun was not understood by the Europeans till after the Restoration.

William Byrd: Satirist

T t HE glittering London literary world of Addison, Congreve, Swift, Gay, and Pope seems at far remove from the contemporary pattern of life on that outer fringe of civilization, the VirginiaCarolina frontier. Nevertheless, the recently discovered early writings of William Byrd II' show his pen, which drew the crudities of Lubberland, to have been guided and sharpened by his nineteen years' residence in Augustan London. Byrd's famous History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina is not, as was long believed, the first and unique literary effort of a Virginia planter who was only unconsciously a man of letters. 2 On the contrary, that minor masterpiece of early American realism was the culmination of thirty years' apprenticeship to the trade of writer as practiced by the most fashionable and polished English masters of his age. The formative period of Byrd's literary activities runs from i696 to I726, and all but eleven of these thirty years were spent in England.3 During his nineteen years abroad he wrote vers de societe, character sketches, essays in the form of letters, humorous satire, an epigrammatic epitaph, and translations from Latin done, according to Dryden's theory, freely and for literary effect. With the exception of a burlesque published anonymously in I704, some verses written at Tunbridge Wells in J7i8-i9, and possibly a translation of Petronius, none of his compositions seems to have found its way into print during his lifetime.4 In this, too,

Note on the Text of the Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt

Note on the Text of the Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyatt

The Henotikon Schism and the Roman Church

THE close of the fifth century Rome and Constantinople were still divided over the question of the Henotikon of Zeno. Ever since Gibbon wrote his famous history the Henotikon has been well known at least by name. All students of church history are fairly well acquainted with the Monophysite controversy and the various attempts to heal the unhappy divisions in the Eastern church, divisions which were undermining the unity of the Empire, and threatening the authority of the emperor. Still the far-reaching effect of the whole Monophysite question was much greater than is commonly realized, demonstrating, as it did, the fundamental differences in theological thinking of East and West. The legalistic mind of the Roman was incapable of understanding the theological subtleties of the Greek. Ever since Nicaea the two divisions of the Empire had been growing apart, but not until Chalcedon were their differences clearly apparent. The famous Tome of Leo' dominated the discussions of that council, and gained for its author a position higher than any his predecessors had enjoyed; but in the end it was the rock on which the unity of the church was shattered. The emperors could not but view with alarm the contentions that threatened the integrity of the Eastern Empire. Backed by hordes of fanatical monks, the Monophysites became a powerful sect, which it was impossible to crush. Antioch and Alexandria were the chief centers of disturbance, but it was the latter which caused the emperors the greater anxiety. When every allowance is made for exaggeration, we get a picture of civil and ecclesiastical discord dismal in the extreme.'

Literature of the Occult

ALTHOUGH the consideration of magic is a necessary prelude to the study of primitive religion, and, as such, lays claim to no inconsiderable share in the literature of anthropological science, it forms relatively only a small proportion of tho vast accumulation of printed matter which has grown up in relation to magic in tho larger sense, more especially in connexion with its manifestations in belief, theory and practice in. medieval and modern times. Excepting historical and descriptive treatment, scientific analysis of this mass of material has barely begun. Eventually, when its evidence has been silted and subjected to test, it should provide a valuable corpus of reference in the scientific investigation of manifestations of the ‘marvellous'. In the meantime, a comprehensive library of occult literature is indispensable to research, especially in the detection of fraud. Unfortunately, the works which contain contemporary or early records of the facts are often both rare and costly. The University of London Council for Psychical Investigation is fortunate in having at its disposal the library of occult literature formed by Mr. Harry Price, from which a selection of five hundred rarities was on exhibition in December last (see NATURE, Dec. 15, 1934, p. 927). In 1929 Mr. Price published a catalogue of the greater part of his library, which contained 10,000 items. To this he has now added a supplement containing an additional 2,500 items acquired since that date (University of London Council for Psychical Investigation, Bull. 1: “Short-Title Catalogue of Works on Psychical Research.; From 1472 A.D. to the Present Day”, pp. 112. London; 13D Roland Gardens. 2s. 6d.). It is embellished with nine illustrations, title-pages or cuts from rarer books such as Molitor's “De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus” {c. 1489) or “The Famous History of Friar Bacon” (1660), “very pleasant and delightful to be read” as is recorded on tho title-page.

Euterpe: Being the second book of the Famous History of Herodotus. Englished by B. R., 1584. Edited by Andrew Lang. London. 1888. 10s.

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Euterpe; begin the second book of the famous history of Herodotus

Euterpe; begin the second book of the famous history of Herodotus