An Ethnologist's View of History Part 2

To this one end, understanding it as we best can, he claims all effort should tend; and any other view than this of the philosophy of history, any other standard of value applied to the records of the past, he looks upon as delusive and deceptive, no matter under what heraldry of t.i.tle or seal of sanct.i.ty it is offered.

FOOTNOTES:

[6-1] In his epochal essay "Die Aufgabe des Geschichtschreibers."

_Gesammelte Werke_, Bd. I., s. 13. It was republished with a discriminating introduction by Professor Steinthal in _Die Sprachphilosophischen Werke Wilhelm von Humboldt's_ (Berlin, 1883).

[6-2] "Der Zweck-Begriff bewirkt nur sich selbst, und ist am Ende was er im Anfange, in der Unsprunglichkeit, war." _Encyclopadie der philosophischen Wissenschaften._ Theil,[TN-4] I., -- 204.

[6-3] "Die Weltgeschichte ist der blosse Ausdruck einer vorbestimmten Entwicklung." (Quoted by Lord Acton.)

[7-1] "Die Menschheit hat sich aus naturlicher, tierischer Grundlage auf rein naturliche mechanische Weise entwickelt." _Anthropolgische Beitrage_, s. 21.

[8-1] _A Lecture on the Study of History_, p. 1 (London, 1895).

[8-2] See his article "The Relation of Anthropology to the Study of History," in _The American Journal of Sociology_, July, 1895.

[8-3] Ludwig Tobler, in his article "Zur Philosophie der Geschichte," in the _Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie_, Bd. XII., s. 195.

[10-1] One of the most lucid of modern German philosophical writers says, "Without language, there could be no unity of mental life, no national life at all." Friedrich Paulsen, _Introduction to Philosophy_, p. 193. (English translation, New York, 1895.) I need scarcely recall to the student that this was the cardinal principle of the ethnological writings of Wilhelm von Humboldt, and that his most celebrated essay is ent.i.tled "Ueber die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einfluss auf die geistige Entwickelung des Menschengeschlechts."

The thought is well and tersely put by Prof. Frank Granger--"Language is the instinctive expression of national spirit." (_The Worship of the Romans_, p. 19, London, 1896.)

[10-2] "Law, in its positive forms, may be viewed as an instrument used to produce a certain kind of character." Frank Granger, ubi supra, p.

19.

[10-3] _Lectures on the Science of Religion_, p. 55.

[12-1] How different from the position of Voltaire, who, expressing,[TN-5] the general sentiment of his times, wrote,--"The history of barbarous nations has no more interest than that of bears and wolves!"

[13-1] _Grundriss der ethnologischen Jurisprudenz_, Bd. I., s. 5.

(Leipzig, 1894.)

[13-2] "Das Geschichte ist weder eine Offenbarung Gottes, noch ein Naturprocess, sondern eben Menschenwerk." Tobler in the _Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie_, Bd. XII., s. 201.

[14-1] _History of the Philosophy of History_, p. 579.

[15-1] There is nothing in this inconsistent with the principle laid down by Lecky: "The men of each age must be judged by the ideal of their own age and country, and not by the ideal of ourselves."--_The Political Value of History_, p. 50, New York, 1892. The distinction is that between the relative standard, which we apply to motives and persons, and the absolute standard, which we apply to actions. The effects of the latter, for good or evil, are fixed, and independent of the motives which prompt them.

[17-1] "The historian," says Tolstoi, "is obliged to admit an inexplicable force, which acts upon his elementary forces." _Power and Liberty_, p. 28 (Eng. Trans., New York, 1888).

[18-1] See his article "Ueber die Ideen in der Geschichte," in the _Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie_.[TN-6] Bd. III., S. 486.

[18-2] Brooks Adams, _The Law of Civilization and Decay_, Preface (London, 1895). This author has reached an advanced position with reference to thought and emotion as the impulses of humanity.

[19-1] _Grundriss der ethnologischen Jurisprudenz_, Band I., s. 4.

[19-2] _Mind and Motion_, pp. 29, 140, etc. (London, 1895.) Prof.

Paulsen goes much further, as, "The inner disposition spontaneously determines the development of the individual," and "The organism is, as it were, congealed voluntary action."--_Introduction to Philosophy_, pp,[TN-7] 187, 190.

[20-1] Before him, however, the expression "ebrius Deo" was applied to the ancient rhapsodists.

[21-1] As expressed by Prof. Droysen, in his work, _Principles of History_, (p. 16, New York, 1893), recently translated by President Andrews, of Brown University--"Historical things are the perpetual actualization of the moral forces." Elsewhere he says--"History is humanity becoming conscious concerning itself,"[TN-8] There is no objection to such expressions; they are good as far as they go; but they do not go to the end.

[21-2] In the _Zeitschrift fur Volkerpsychologie_, Band XI., Heft II.

[21-3] _Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschheit_, B. XV., Cap. I.