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whole or in part and have given me faithful admonition. Mr. Lynn R. Meekins, editor of the Baltimore Star, gave me the benefit both of his literary taste and his professional knowledge, and Miss Mabel M. Reese, assistant in the university library, rendered indispensable aid in the reading of proof.

Without laying upon his friends the deficiencies of the book, the author entertains the hope that it will assist in some measure the extension of histórical research.

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY,
June, 1911.

JOHN MARTIN VINCENT.

HISTORICAL RESEARCH

CHAPTER I

THE DEFINITION OF HISTORY

WHEN the history of the past began to be told among primitive people it is evident that no questions were asked about the theories upon which it was based, nor concerning the motives which actuated the narrator. It was sufficient to know that stories of the forefathers were about to be related, and antiquity lent its ears to every minstrel in turn. The curiosity of man about his predecessors doubtless started in his craving for entertainment, and the beginnings of history may be seen today! in the Bedouin story-teller surrounded by his tribesmen, breathlessly intent.

The contrast between this primitive history and Primitive the modern works of erudition is so vast that one is History. led at once to inquire how came the world to hold its present conceptions. As the long line of historians is examined it becomes clear that history, even from the time it was first seriously written down, has passed through a variety of forms, and that the definition itself has had a history of its own. The etymology of the word is interesting, but gives no

Herodotus.

authority for the modern contents of the term. History is derived from ioropía, which means primarily a learning, or knowing by inquiry, but every age has declared for itself to what that inquiry shall be directed and what subjects are worth knowing as history. Usage has remained steadfast only in this, that in some way or another history has been the story of mankind.

The first known example of extended historical composition is the work of Herodotus. He was no longer in the earliest infancy of history, for he states at the opening of the first book that he wishes not only to relate the glorious actions of the forefathers, but to give reasons for them as well.

"This is a publication of the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, in order that the actions of men may not be effaced by time, nor the great and wondrous deeds displayed both by Greeks and barbarians deprived of renown; and among the rest, what were their grounds of strife."

Like others of the ancients, Herodotus combined geographical description with his accounts of states, and with many side issues and anecdotes he put together one of the most interesting as well as one of the most valuable of books. He was a capital story-teller, but in places was weak in the critical examination of his materials. He was not altogether credulous about the information which fell in his way, but with charming naïveté provided a line of retreat for himself and his readers.

"For myself, my duty is to report all that is said, but I am not obliged to believe it all alike—a remark

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