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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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