HISTORY

is both the biography and unwritten events of the life of the human race. The beginnings of history are to be seen in the rude weapons, bones, and barrows left by what used to be called ‘prehistoric’ man. It is impo ible to decide how far back into this early period the myths and sagas go, and how far these are inventions, how far glorifications of actual events. _Niebuhr’s Romische Geschichte 1812-32, first turned attention to their po ibly historical nature, and much history has since been read into the story of Romulus and myths in general. The reverse of the proce which turned heroes into supernatural beings is also seen: the Wade, who is a hero of some parts of the Eng. countryside, and is treated by Scott and others as a mediaeval personage, is po ibly Woden. The point is that history, even in the old-fashioned sense, may begin with Eolithic man. Before the first Egyptian dynasty, dated by Mariette from 5004 B.C., there is a tradition of nearly 20,000 years of rule of gods, dem i-gods, and shades. With the Memphite dynasties (c. 4000 B.C.) Egyptian monumental history begins, and papyri, our first-written records, are found in the tombs. Inscriptions were for long the only history; among them are the cuneiform writings of As syria, perhaps contemporary with first Egyptian papyri; they recorded important events, names of rulers, etc.; similar but fuller accounts (Annales) of events of the years were afterwards kept by the Romans. The Greeks never cleared their early history from its encumbrance of myth. though sceptics arose like Hecataeus of Miletus (6th cent. B.C.), and in Greece itself in age of and afterwards Polybius definitely set before themselves the ideal of historical veracity. History through Gr. example has, from Roman times to the present day, been taken to be an account of events truthfully but elegantly narrated; sometimes accuracy has impinged on elegance, sometimes everything is sacrificed to the love of literary effect; sometimes scrupulous intention of accuracy is to be found in masterpieces of style, as in Macaulay, and, as many people now think, Froude. The acceptance of Christianity had as enormous an effect on historical perspective and on the growth of the spirit of historical citicism as it had on history, and a similar remark may be made about the Reformation. Discu ion of questions, still unsettled, as to usages of early church trained men’s minds to consider historical evidence, and from that time critical attention has been given to the past. The Fr. house of St. Maur started, in 17th cent., the work of editing texts which is now being unintermittently carried out by Record Commi ions and private initiative in every modern country. The importance of the research element in modern history writing has led to system of specialists on minute points. The bibliography of history is a wide subject in itself.