A Plea for the Historical Teaching of History. By C.
H. Firth, M.A. (The Clarendon Press. is. net.)—Professor Firth's Intro- ductory Lecture, here published, was a very plain-spoken expres- sion of opinion, and, as it is always well to have ideals set before us, likely to be useful. He is profoundly discontented with the present School of History. "At the end of two years we turn out our first-class man, unable to read MSS., unless they are very modern ones, unaccustomed to handle original authorities, and without any knowledge of historical bibliography. In most cases he has very little acquaintance with modern languages." The same sort of thing might be said against other schools. A man may achieve the highest honours in Moderations and the Final School of Literae Hionaniores without any knowledge of palaeography, ignorant of the sources from which the classical texts which he uses are formed, quite at a loss if he were asked to give the names, dates, and surviving works of ancient and mediaeval scholars, and wholly unacquainted with the ancient tongues of Egypt, Babylonia, and Palestine. It must always be so. Neither time nor opportunity suffices for these things. The brutal truth is that we want the School of History, not to train historians, but to equip politicians, journalists, teachers. Long ago Mark Pattison wanted to get rid of passmen ; that he did not achieve, probably he did not wish to achieve it. But he did, or helped to do, this: he turned passmen into classmen. Now Professor Firth wants to get rid of the classmen. All that is to remain is a small band of experts. There are twenty names or more in an average History First Class. Are they all to be historians ? Is even any considerable number of them to be trained for the work? Employment may be found for them, so far as subjects are concerned. But how about publishers and readers? The writer of this notice is not, never has been, and certainly never will be a teacher of history. What he knows of the Oxford History School is that a fair amount of good work seems to be done in after years by its pupils. And may it not be said : if you are thinking only of the men who are to write history, what of those who are to make it ?
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