HISTORY (Lat. historia, Gk. loroph, history, from icrrwp, hist6r, learned, front ettlirat, rig. C71(11, Skt. rid, OliG. Ger. iris:ten, to know ) . A systematic narrative of past or, in the light of modern historical scholarship, the science of the progressive development of human society. The social and eemitunie conditions of peoples. their racial affinities and physical environment, exercise determining influences upon their his tory, and find expression in their thought, their art. and their polities. History deals with the social structure in its successive forms and rep. ognizes as inseparable allies all sciences which contribute to a knowledge of man as a social being, and in his relation with the physical world.
As a science. history is primarily inductive. It proceeds from a body of conerete facts. which critical study links together according to the semienees of time and causation. Afterwards deductive processes may lie used. but always sparingly and cautiously.
Historical method comprises four processes; the collation of facts; the arrangement of these facts, according to the sequences of time and eritici.on, by which the value of the farts is determined; and their interpretation in accordance with the results of arrangement and criticism. These processes are all simple; they are the ordinary processes of scientific research, but in carrying them out the human equation becomes so large an element of the problem as to make it essentially different from the problems of the physical world, and for this reason history can never be an exact science.
Distory depends upon human evidence, and its investigation must follow the laws governing the reception of human evidence. These are found to a considerable extent in the body of principles developed by jurisprudence for the re ception of evidence in the courts. The historical material is contained in several categories: (a) Remains—studs as buildings. walls, roads, statues, pictures, medals, coins, implements—whatever, indeed, man has made and used and which may thus throw light upon his civilization and his deeds. These may be studied directly, when ac cessible, or through the reproductions easily ob tainable by means of modern processes.
(b) Documents. Under this head are included official and business papers and letters written with an immediate practical purpose.
(c) Literatures. This class includes a great body of material of the highest value—the writ ings through which are expressed the ideas of the peoples, their philosophy, poetry, science, and religion.
(d) Traditions. Much of this class is pre served in the literatures; much of it must be gathered from other sources.
(e) Laws. These, especially public law, are found in codes and treatises, and are of great value in determining many questions.
(f) Contemporary writings with historical purpose—annals, chronicles, biographies. Under these heads can be classified the original material on which secondary historical work, the written history of a nation or an age, is based and by examination of which its accuracy must be tested.
This material may also be divided into two great classes of evidence—conscious and uncon scious. It will he seen that some of this material must have been prepared consciously to influence the opinion of contemporary or succeeding genera tions. In this class are proclamations, state ments, writings, narratives, told with intention concerning events within the narrator's own knowledge, or reported to him by others, Such evidence must be taken with qualifications attach ing to all ex-parte testimony. On the other hand, the evidence may he given unconsciously, as in documents of record, writings or other remains, prepared with no other purpose beyond that of direct utility. A striking example of this class of evidence is found in the little cylinders and tablets of clay, preserving in the business records, impressed upon them in cuneiform char acters, so much of the social history of the Babylonians of thousands of years before the Christian Era. All these materials of human history must be subjected to searching inquiry as to their original purpose. and the circum stances under which they were made. The devel opment of history into scientific form has been the work of ages, and owes its final impulse to the great improvements in methods in the physical sciences during the eighteenth and nine teenth centuries, although it developed along with the development of the human society whose life it records. The historical idea re quires for its existence a background and a con sciousness on the part of society of itself and of its continuity; of its relations to a past and a present. The growth of this social self consciousness has been a matter of time. It is interesting to notice, on the other hand, how the study of their history has sometimes aroused in a people the consciousness of their own national life, which before was dormant. An example of this may be found in the Balkan States, which were roused not many years ago into determined revolt against Turkish rule by the teaching of their national history through the efforts of a few patriotic scholars.