He reveals facts, and through them the truth is
established.

But history is more than a science. It is an art. The investigator is
not necessarily a historian, any more than a lumberman is an
architect. The historian must use all available material, whether the
result of his own researches or that of others. He must weigh all
facts and deduct from them the truth. He must analyze, synthesize,
organize, and generalize. He must absorb the spirit of the people of
whom he writes and color the narrative as little as possible with his
own prejudices. But the historian must be more than a narrator; he
must be an interpreter. As an interpreter he should never lose sight
of the fact that all his deductions should be along scientific lines.
Even then he will not escape errors. In pure science error is
inadmissible. In history minor errors of fact are unavoidable, but
their presence need not seriously affect the general conclusions. In
spite of many misstatements of fact, a historical work may be
substantially correct in the main things--in presenting and
interpreting with true perspective the life and spirit of the people
of whom it treats.

The historian must be more than a chronicler and an interpreter. He
must be master of a lucid, virile, attractive literary style. The
power of expression, indeed, must be one of his chief accomplishments.
The old notion, it is true, that history is merely a branch of
literature is quite as erroneous as the later theory that history is
a pure science and must be dissociated from all literary form.

=The teacher of history as the teacher of the evolution of civilization=

The pioneer investigator who patiently delves into sources and brings
to light new material deserves high praise, but far rarer is the gift
of the man who sees history in its true perspective, who can construct
the right relationships and can then reproduce the past in compelling
literary form. A historian without literary charm is like an architect
who cares only for the utility and nothing for the grace and beauty of
his building.

=The chronological point of view=

The history teacher who slavishly follows old chronological methods
has not kept pace with modern progress; but the teacher who has
discarded the chronological method has ventured without a compass on
an unknown sea. Chronology, the sequence of events, is as necessary in
history as distance and direction in geography.

=The economic point of view=

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