The Project Gutenberg EBook of Introduction to the Study of History, by
Charles V. Langlois and Charles Seignobos

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Title: Introduction to the Study of History

Author: Charles V. Langlois
Charles Seignobos

Translator: G. G. Berry

Release Date: August 8, 2009 [EBook #29637]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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INTRODUCTION

TO THE

STUDY OF HISTORY

BY

CH. V. LANGLOIS & CH. SEIGNOBOS

OF THE SORBONNE

AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY G. G. BERRY

WITH A PREFACE BY F. YORK POWELL

NEW YORK

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

1904

TO THE READER

It is a pleasure to recommend this useful and well-written little book
to English readers. It will both interest and help. There are, for
instance, a few pages devoted to the question of evidence that will be
an aid to every one desirous of getting at the truth respecting any
series of facts, as well as to the student of history. No one can read
it without finding out that to the historian history is not merely a
pretty but rather difficult branch of literature, and that a history
book is not necessarily good if it appears to the literary critic
'readable and interesting,' nor bad because it seems to him 'hard or
heavy reading.' The literary critic, in fact, is beginning to find out
that he reads a history as he might read a treatise on mathematics or
linguistics, at his peril, and that he is no judge of its value or lack
of value. Only the expert can judge that. It will probably surprise some
people to find that in the opinion of our authors (who agree with Mr.
Morse Stephens and with the majority of scholars here) the formation and
expression of ethical judgments, the approval or condemnation of Caius
Julius Caesar, or of Caesar Borgia, is not a thing within the historian's
province. His business is to find out what can be known about the
characters and situations with which he is engaged, to pu