STONES OR BREAD ?
Tales from English History. Compiled by W. H. L. Watson. (Allan. 6s. net.) Bygone England. Selected by W. H. Cornish. (Harrap. 3s. 61.
net.) . . . .
TEE folly of pounding at a child with the facts of history has long been recognized. It is even doubtful. whether the modern child knows any of the dates of battles ; and it is quite possible that he will not even be able to string off, in their order, the reigns of the English kings. Nof -does this matter. The nearest encyclopaedia will provide him with facts, at need ; but principles, if they are to be more than mere truisms, must be evolved out of his own self-won knoWL ledge. The aim of the modern teacher of history, therefore, is not the acquisition of facts alone ; it is rather the awakening in the pupil of a lively social conscience. The Past must be presented as a' moving pageant, colourful and alive, ank rich with implications. It must appear as the base of a pyramid of which he is the apex. It must be studied in all its evolutionary' tendencies . Now, this new aim involves an entirely new method. His- tory is not a watertight-compartment study ; it has to be linked up with the study Of geography and, especially, the study of literature. Also, it must widen out from this island- story of Ours fulfil embracei the larger continental-Stor#, of which it is only a part. That, in turn, and later, will -naturally lead to a further widening : history will embrace _the world-story itself, and thus attain_ a proper perspective. For the history of England, of course, will never be. rightly understood until it is ken in relation to the history of Europe; as the history of Europe will. never 13e rightly understood _until that is seen in relation to tie history of the world. (It is the lack of thit'to-ordination thit Tye' owe -bid' teriden-ci to an island-arroganee.) And if it be objected that such an all-embracing method in the study -of history is not possible within the limited period of school-training, the obvious Answer is that no true education can do more than point a direction in its various studies. Attainment was • never the aim of wise educationists. Let us take one concrete instance of the difference implied in the old and the new methoclS. broadly speaking, the one thing that instantly springs to the Mind-of anyone trained under the old method, when the name Of William the Conqueror-.is mentioned, is the date of hiS landing ; and perhaps -hazy pictures will persist of a battle rind a coronation. Under the new' method none of these things will spring first to mind ; instead, the deminint idea will be of what it meant to England.thus, suddenly to have a French culture . imposed upon it. The gain is abundantly clear.
The study of history has thus become indeed one of the " humanities." The only strange thing is that such a recog- nition has come so, late. Question any sensitive mind (outside the present generation) as to whence it obtained its most abiding knowledge of history, its purest sense of our social heritage, and the answer must inevitably be : From literature.
Authors may not be the most trustworthy people where facts are .
concerned.. Shakespeare's Romans maybe no Romans at all, and his Athenian workmen no other than the peasant craftsmen of Stratford-on-Avon. But no matter. Your author has a larger gift to bring than a handful of minutely clear facts. With his imagination he will breathe upon the dry bones till The still valley stirs once more with the sound of laughter and of tears.
. It is curious then that these two books have never. been compiled before. Their editors have ransacked the authors for pictures of English history. They have not confined their 'selection to the words of imaginative eye-witnesses, or even of contemporary writers. Their aim is substantially the same;: to enhance our view of history by lending us the eyes of imaginative writers who happen to have taken historical Incidents for their themes. Thus, in their pages, history 'becomes indeed a live,' palpitating study. Mr. Watson's -selection is incomparably the better of the two. He has wisely limited his selection to • pictures of English history from early times until 1600. - His choice -is therefore much more comprehensive in its view. And he has avoided the sentimental appeal that characterizes Mr. Cornisles choice. Chroniclers and contemporary accounts are liberally drawn :upon, and novelists. (" there is no better teacher of history,'; he says, " than the good historical novel ") are not neglected. .One thing only seems to us to prevent his selection from being all that it might have been ; and that isan over earefulneSs to include only those authors. whose " facts," it may_ be sup- posed, are more or less accurate. Not, of course, that accuracy is not desirable. But this new method of the study of history `-is of little account if it does not induce in the pupil a recep- tivity for the inward truth as well as for the factual evidence-. Iyhat is more packed with significant history, to the seeing eye, .than, for instance, the ballad ? Yet the ballad finds no place in Mr. Watson's pages. Perhaps that is because he has avoided poetry altogether—which is a real pity. Anyone who has ever experienced how quick children arc to respond to balladry will regret this omission, And ballads have this additional appeal ; they lend themselves so readily to acting-L- than which there is no more direct way of making history live. Apart from this limitation, however, Mr. Watson's selection -is most heartily to be' recommended, not only to schools, but to all who have the care of Children.. They will - want to possess it, rather than to borrow it.
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