Outline of Universal History | Page 7

Why is this long drama with all that is noble and joyous in it, and with
its abysses of sin and misery, enacted at all?" It is only a partial answer
that one can hope to give to this grave inquiry, for the designs of
Providence can not be fully fathomed. But, among the ends in view, the
moral training of mankind stands forth with a marked prominence. The
deliverance of the race from moral evil and error, and the building-up
of a purified society, enriched with all the good that belongs to the ideal
of humanity, and exalted by fellowship with God, is not only an end
worthy in itself, but it is the end towards which the onward movement
of history is seen to be directed. Hence, a central place in the course of
history belongs to the life and work of Jesus Christ.
No more satisfactory solution of this problem of the significance of
history has ever been offered than that brought forward by the Apostle
Paul in Acts xvii. 27, where he says that the nations of men were
assigned to their places on the earth, and their duration as well as
boundaries determined, "that they should seek the Lord, if haply they
might feel after him, and find him."
WORKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY.-(Professor C. K.
ADAMS'S Manual of Historical Literature (1882) is an excellent guide
in historical reading. Briefer lists of works in Methods of Teaching and

Studying History, edited by G. Stanley Hall.) Books on the Philosophy
of History: R. FLINT, The Philosophy of History, vol. i.,--Writers on
the subject in France and Germany. Vol. ii. will treat of England and
Italy. The work is a critical review of the literature on the subject.
Schlegel, The Philosophy of History; Shedd's Lectures on the
Philosophy of History; Bunsen's God in History (3 vols., 1870);
LOTZE, Mikrokosmus, vol. iii, book vii.; Montesquieu's Spirit of the
Laws; Buckle, History of Civilization in England (2 vols.). This work is
based on the denial of free-will, and the doctrine that physical
influences,--climate, soil, food, etc.,--are the main causes of intellectual
progress. Draper's History of the Intellectual Development of Europe(2
vols., 2d edition, 1876) is in the same vein. Opposed to this philosophy
are GOLDWIN SMITH'S Lectures on the Study of History; C.
Kingsley, in his Miscellanies, The Limits of Exact Science as applied to
History; Froude, in Short Studies, vol. i., The Science of History; Lotze,
as above; also, Flint, and Droysen, Grundriss der Historik. Hegel's
Philosophy of History has profound observations, but connected with
an a priori theory.
HISTORICAL WRITING.--The beginning of historical writing was in
the form of lists of kings, or bare records of battles, or the simple
registration of other occurrences of remarkable interest. The Egyptians,
Babylonians, Assyrians, Chinese, and other nations, furnish examples
of this rudimental type of historical writing. More continuous annals
followed; but these are meager in contents, and make no attempt to find
links of connection between events. The ancient Hebrew historians are
on a much higher plane, and, apart from their religious value, far
surpass all other Asiatic histories. It was in Greece, the fountain-head
of science, that history, as an art, first appeared. Herodotus, born early
in the fifth century B.C., first undertook to satisfy curiosity respecting
the past by a more elaborate and entertaining narrative. He begins his
work thus: "These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus,
which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the
remembrance of what men have done, and of preventing the great and
marvelous actions of the Greeks and the barbarians from losing their
due meed of glory, and withal to put on record what were the grounds
of their hostility." In Herodotus, history, owing to the inquiry made into

the causes of events, begins to rise above the level of a mere chronicle,
its primitive type. Thucydides, who died about 400 B.C., followed. He
is far more accurate in his investigations, having a deep insight into the
origin of the events which he relates, and is a model of candor. He, too,
writes to minister to the inquisitive spirit of his countrymen, and of the
generations that were to follow. He began to write his history of the
war between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians while it was still
going on, in the belief, he says, "that it would turn out great, and
worthier of being recorded than any that had preceded it." The attention
of historical writers was still confined to a particular country, or to
insulated groups of events. Before there could spring up the idea of
universal history, it was necessary that there should be a broader view
of mankind as a whole. The ancient Stoics had a glimpse of the race as
a family,