Following the development of the biological laboratory, the historical laboratory is coming into use. In the swing of the ages each epoch has had its predominating line of thought. The subjects of philosophy, classics and ecclesiasticism have claimed their share of time and attention. The movement of the nineteenth century has been the advancement of science. Along with this development have come greater scientific methods in all lines. History has been remodeled and recast on new and better plans of work. The subject of biology has dealt with life forms. History is the record of the human experiences of man; and man is as good as a mollusk for study.

It is no uncommon expression in modern historical colloquialism to hear much said about "the sources" and "original material." As history is an account of the past actions of men, every historical statement must go back to the memory of those who saw the event or some record made at the time. Traditions, first oral and later written, characterize early historical sources, such as the sagas of the Norsemen. The silent but impressive monuments, such as the mounds and pyramids, mark the patient efforts and civilization of past peoples. The tales of reliable travelers; the maps of navigators and explorers ; the laws enacted by a people; in short, the whole embodiment of a generation in descendants, institutions and records made at or near the time described by the participants are qualified to speak and tell us the course which social events followed.

The libraries should always be a source of pleasure and advantage. The first in importance to a history teacher is his own library; next comes the city, county or private libraries of pupils, parents and friends. There is an economy in many books,-economy of time to the teacher in looking up subjects, and, second, an economy to the pupils in teaching them to fix values and relative importance to the books used. To be able to use a library to advantage is of exceeding great value to the scholar, and although little appreciated by those unfamiliar with a good library, it gives one a plow to turn the soil of many a hard problem.

Field work, such as visiting old institutions and antiquaries, should never be forgotten. A good example of this kind of

study may be seen at the old Mission near the Plaza in Los Angeles, California. For the student of Pacific-coast history no better illustration can be found of the influence of the Saracenic art over the Spanish, for when the Saracens invaded Spain they left their impress upon the institutions and art. The peculiar-shaped roof of the old Mission belfry is a remnant of this influence brought to America by the early padres, and thus the stream of effort flows on forever.

The importance of historical geography is known to all. More history and geography should be associated. The purpose of political geography should be to furnish a stage for the great drama of human history. Geography worthy of the name helps the learner to interpret the meaning of history.

If the pupils will join the brave, blunt Miles Standish; share his sufferings on the ocean and in the forests of the bleak, cold New England; endure the bitterness of a life among the barbarians of America,—they will be better able, through their imaginations, to see those rigorous times. They may catch the relation of the geographical environment to character, and perhaps see some reason why the Northern people led a different life from those of the sunny, warm and genial South.

This brings us to a consideration of the general principles of historical methods. The proper study of history is the "conVersion of narrative into problems." He who can take an account of any event or series of events and ask the leading questions which confronted the people at the time and find the proper solution, is a philosopher. While we may not be able to answer all problems, yet we can see how past peoples did solve them or allowed them to go by default. In either case there is a lesson to be learned and taught to those studying the great movements of human events. To place oneself in the past of another, to think and to act as he would under like circumstances, is a difficult task either in history, literature or ethics; but to be a successful leader in these subjects one must try to wear the robes of others.

The rational topical method stands well out before the common text-book method in general use by many at present. What is this logical outline method? is a pertinent question. Outlines are made in various ways. Some are good while

others are worthless. The topical outline method is illustrated by taking some subject, as witchcraft, and beginning at its earliest commencement; then tracing in regular development the different stages of growth and formation in logical order. As all roads led to Rome, so all roads lead to history. While the general truth remains, yet there are practical advantages in taking the best road which leads to historical study.

Life is the greatest interest in history as in biology; hence the [natural order of development is the one to create the most interest. Very few pupils have developed sufficiently to follow intelligently and to their best advantage the fortunes of several issues at the same time. In the ordinary text-book method there is no one thread to follow, but a jumbled mass-a multitude of threads to be woven into a connected whole. To study history in this way is to follow a bewildering and confusing way. It is to follow a road which leads to the wilderness and desert, instead of one which leads to the beautiful and entrancing vales of interesting and historical paradise. The topical method brings into play the essential psychological elements. used for mental development.

It is a well-known fact to psychologists that we only know things by comparison. A young child could gaze at an object forever and it would only be a perception; but by bringing another object into the field of vision, at once comparison begins. Inference soon follows in the wake of comparison, and conception of some idea gives us knowledge. Since the topical method allows the mind to compare one period with another this part of the psychology of the subject is good. It further allows analysis and some synthesis, perhaps; but best of all it develops criticism,-that one mental quality so much desired by scholars, and which generally comes to us so slowly. The topical method allows reason to have full play, and we can 'trace more fully the cause and effect; ethical, economical and sociological laws underlying and permeating the problem under consideration. Imagination should become the supreme guide to our reason, and its constant use is brought into play. In this method memory is, as it should be, properly subordinated as an aid or instrument of use in all our history work. Therefore, the best psychological results follow from this plan of procedure.

The methods followed in this work are common-sense expedients for its varied operations. The combined, critical, recitative plan; the co-operative method; the brace, or subtopical outline analysis and the conversational, lecture, or short talk and quiz methods, are permissible.

The advantages are almost all with the topical outline scheme. The psychology of the plan is without question along this method. It develops reason and critical ability, analysis in logical thought, and establishes good mental habits. It allows a written or recitative lesson as a completed whole, and assists memory instead of retarding and embarrassing the mind. It further prepares the way for research work by training in outline and complete subject work.

The disadvantages are that the text-books are not made that way, and it is too much work to rearrange the topics anew.

The sources. The educative value and importance of the sources can only be fully appreciated by their repeated use. To know what fear is one must have been frightened; and to know the value of the sources one must have used them. The office of history is threefold: to record; to instruct; to please. History lays natural claims to the interest of the reader, for it deals with stirring events, with human character and with the welfare of the race. There must be something in history to arouse the minds of the young, and to develop them when they are aroused. The training element in history is of exceeding great importance. The value of the sources, though long known to scholars, has been less appreciated by the mass of the reading and teaching public.

While sources are the basis of history they are not to be destroyed when used as the materials in chemistry; but the utterances of men, which are the breath of human life and the ethics of human conduct, live on forever. No one can settle any historical question without appealing to the sources or taking into account the character of the actors in history. Nobody remembers all the history he reads. It is only the bold and striking events which seize hold of his mind and form the nuclei of his associations. The original sources give these bold and striking events in the most durable and lasting form. Volumes about the Iroquois will not tell so much as Father Jogues' account of their cruelty to him.

Father Jogues narrates at some length how he and his followers were ambushed by the Iroquois Indians, and were finally captured and imprisoned. In a part of his narration Father Jogues says: "Last of all William Conture was dragged in.

When I beheld him thus bound and naked, I could not contain myself; but, leaving my keepers, rushed through the midst of the savages who had brought him, embraced him most tenderly; exhorted him to offer all this to God for himself, and those at whose hands he suffered. They at first looked on, in wonder, at my proceeding; then, as if recollecting themselves, and gathering all their rage, they fell upon me, and with their fists, thongs and clubs beat me until I fell senseless. Two of them dragged me back to where I had been before; and scarcely had I begun to breathe, when some others, attacking me, tore out, by biting, almost all my nails, and crushed my two forefingers with their teeth, giving me intense pain."*

The instructing power of history goes back in a measure to the sources which must be set in proper arrangement by the historian. There are two sides to history: the outward events, or those with which secondary histories alone can deal; and the inward spirit, or that which is revealed only by the sources. The sources can throw an inward light on events. Secondary writers may collate, compare and supplement them, but they can never supersede them. If we cannot know both things, it would be better to know how Mary Dyar justified herself than to know how her trial was carried on before the General Court of Boston.

Mary Dyar was a condemned Quakeress. She was the wife of the Secretary of Rhode Island, and insisted on coming to Boston, where she was finally condemned to death, reprieved and banished; but she again returned, and was executed in 1660. At that time she wrote, in the following language, to the General Court, then in session at Boston :

"Whereas I am by many charged with the guiltinesse of my own Blood; if you mean in my coming to Boston, I am therin clear, and justified by the Lord, in whose Will I come. . . . Be not fighters against God, but let my counsel and request be accepted with you. To repeal all such Laws, that the Truth * Hart, Am. Hist, told by Contemp., I., 129–132.