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HISTORY.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DABNEY.
The study of History, like that of other great subjects,
has its own peculiar charms and advantages. It cannot
equal the study of language in cultivating the habit of
minute accuracy and attention to details. Nor can it compete
with mathematical study in accustoming the student
the other hand, there is no other subject that surpasses
History in its power to broaden and deepen both the mind
and the heart. Its charm lies in its human interest. For
its theme is man—"the proper study of mankind"—a
theme that must ever be more attractive to the majority of
human beings than either the asymptotes of the hyperbola
or the subjunctive mood. But while History deals with
man, it should not be confounded with biography, which
deals with individual men. Biography is an invaluable
adjunct to History, but History deals with the life of societies,
nations and states. Fully, fairly and impartially to
comprehend this life in all its marvellously varied social,
political, religious, moral and intellectual manifestations, is
totally beyond the power of any human brain. Yet the
earnest student, who seeks the truth and resolutely turns
his back upon partisanship in every form, can learn enough
of even so vast a theme to reward him richly for his pains.
But let him not yield credence to the common delusion
that History is "easy" to learn,—a mere collection of
entertaining anecdotes concerning eminent men. To understand
the life of nations—the evolution and dissolution of
organized masses of men—is a fascinating, but immensely
difficult task. Such a task is, very properly, not attempted
in primary schools, children being taught the rudiments
of History with other purposes in view. Nor is it wise for
the younger students at a university to attempt the task.
The greater their maturity, the greater also will be the
benefit they may derive from historical study; and they
are therefore advised, as a general rule, to defer its pursuit
until they have had at least one year's training in other
university work.
Three courses in History are offered: one in General
History, one in English and American History, and one in
some selected subject that varies from year to year. These
courses are most advantageously taken in the order named.
B. A. COURSE.
General History.—In this course, which comprises the
historical work required for the B. A. degree, great stress
is laid on the view that the career of man, as revealed in
History, is not a mere jumble of disconnected dates and
facts, but a continuous stream, having its sources and
tributaries in the far-off past, its outlet in the remote future.
No attempt is made, however, to traverse in the classroom
the entire length of this stream; for, although constant
efforts are made to demonstrate the vital connection of
nation with nation, of generation with generation, and of
anterior with ensuing conditions of historical development,
the lectures are confined to the more important periods,
the student being required to fill the gaps by private
reading. These periods, and, therefore, the text-books
studied, may be more or less varied each year. Three
lectures a week.
Text-Books.—Fisher's Outlines of Universal History; Grant's Greece
in the Age of Pericles; Froude's Cæsar; Capes's Age of the Antonines;
Thatcher's and Schwill's Europe in the Middle Age; Seebohm's Era of the
Protestant Revolution; Gardiner's Thirty Years' War; Longman's Frederick
the Great and the Seven Years' War; Dabney's Causes of the French
Revolution; Morris's French Revolution and First Empire.
GRADUATE COURSES.
M. A.
English and American History.—In this higher course
the principles taught in the one preceding will be applied to
a more special field; and, in order that the students may be
encouraged to exercise independent thought and judgment,
they will be required to write essays on assigned topics.
Moreover, it should be distinctly understood that the textbooks
are by no means regarded by the professor as infallible
authorities. On the contrary, some of them contain
much that is emphatically rejected by him. And yet such
books may be exceedingly useful; for to educate a man is
not to stuff him full of cut-and-dried opinions, but rather
to draw forth and develop his own judgment by presenting
to his mind opinions that oppose and even clash violently
are studied side by side, the professor giving his own views
of each and encouraging the students also to think for
themselves. Graduates in General History will derive most
benefit from this course. It may be taken, however, by
others; and, as considerable attention will be paid to constitutional
development, students intending to study Law
will find the course of advantage. Candidates for the
M. A. degree selecting History as one of their four subjects
must graduate both in this course and in the preceding.
Three lectures a week.
Text-Books.—Gardiner's History of England; Green's Short History
of the English People; Gardiner's Atlas of English History; Percy Greg's
History of the United States; Thwaites's Colonies; Hart's Formation of
the Union; Wilson's Division and Re-union; Curry's Southern States of
the American Union.
PH. D.
The more advanced work in the school of History has
for its chief aim the cultivation in the student of a habit of
independent investigation. Even more than in the undergraduate
courses each student will be encouraged not only
to acquire a sound knowledge of well ascertained facts, but
to exercise his own judgment as to the significance of these
facts in the great chain of human events, and also to apply
the rules of evidence and common sense to the establishment
of hitherto unknown facts or to the rejection of supposed
facts which lack the support of trustworthy evidence.
The course is designed for those who aim at the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy, and, if History be the major subject
of a candidate for the doctorate, a dissertation embodying
the results of original research will be required. This
dissertation should not, however, be written until the
second year of graduate work.
The mode of instruction will consist in informal, conversational
discussions between students and professor, the
students being expected to ask questions freely and to
accept or reject the opinions of the professor on these
questions according to their own judgment after candid
and earnest consideration. Informal debates will be held
into close personal contact with the professor. Three
hours a week.
The course for the session of 1896-97 has been devoted
to the careful study of the intellectual, social, moral and
religious development of Europe, without losing sight of
the close connection between this development and the
events of military and political history. An extensive
course of reading, consisting of Buckle's History of Civilization
(2 vols.), Lecky's History of European Morals (2
vols.), Lecky's History of Rationalism in Europe (2 vols.),
Draper's History of the Intellectual Development of Europe
(2 vols.), White's History of the Warfare of Science with
Theology (2 vols.), Fisher's History of the Christian
Church, Bryce's Holy Roman Empire, and Guizot's History
of Civilization in Modern Europe, was assigned, and the
facts and opinions presented by these authors have been
subjected to a closely critical examination.
The course for 1897-98 will consist in the study of a
large number of specially selected works on American
History; or, if occasion requires, the course for 1896-97 may
be repeated.
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