Educative Value of History

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 9, 11 March 1925, Page 30

Educative Value of History

(By John C. Reville, S.J., in America.)

In a well-known passage of his Alhjemeine Padagogik, Herbart analyses the effects produced by momentous historical movements and scenes on the formation of a vigorous character. Great moral energy (he writes) is the result of striking events and spectacles of what he calls unbroken masses of concepts and impressions. The man, he continues, who, owing to conditions peculiar to his own individual life, the life of his family or his country, finds himself, for any extended length of' time, face to face with some great moral truth in action so to say before his very eyes, emerges, as a rule, with something of the hero in his mould. The impression received may bo so strong as to last throughout life. In the family circle, for instance, the children brought up at a fireside where they are daily witnesses of a lather's struggles with poverty and suffering of soul and body, yet never yielding, ever making new sacrifices that his children may not feel the same pang nor be the slaves of the same grinding labor, live truly in the presence of such unbroken Herbartiali masses of ideas and impressions. Such masses daily recording their action on their souls ultimately leave a salutary imprint there. This is still more true if such a family has to face a great moral crisis, a tragic sorrow, some financial or social disaster, in which honor and virtue rise superior to temporal misfortune and loss. In such circumstances the children become of a sturdier mould. They .face the. realities and problems of life with more earnestness and moral power.

This to some extent is "acting history." The same may be said of the young man born in that happy time when his country is fighting the battles of civilisation and liberty, as Greece fought them in the seafight of Salami's or in the contest of the giants at Marathon during the Persian wars; or when young America rivalled the spirit of Greece, if not the actual magnitude of her achievement, at 'Lexington and Concord, when the call of liberty sounded over the peaceful New England farms.

History Broadens Our Horizons.

In such historic scenes when the heart throbs to the drum-beat of victory, the soul grows, the intellect and the heart expand to high ideals and heroic resolves, the whole min undergoes a glorious transformation.

Those who cannot be the fortunate actors of some great historic movement can at least read . history. Unable to react to mighty masses of lofty concepts actually realised on battlefield or in the councils of the wise, they may feel the power of such movements by

pondering over them in their written record. History is a great teacher. Not in vain did Cicero, in a trite but nevertheless expressive, passage, call it testis temporurti, the witness of the ages, lux veritaiis, the light, the radiant torch of truth, vita memoriae, the soul of memory and its vivifier, magistra vitae, the mistress, teacher, and guide of life, niintia vetustatis, the herald of the olden time, the chronicler and annalist of the past. But by history, neither Cicero nor the serious student who pores over the records of nations, understands the mere outward shell of history, its dates, its events catalogued and tabulated in lifeless chronological lists, its wars, successions of kings, presidents, or Popes, its changes of dynasties, its -revolutions and restorations, its pomp, circumstance, and pageantry of war. Thus studied, history is mere information. It is only food for the memory. It does not form either the mind or the heart. To be really an educative force it must go deeper and em- t brace wider horizons. 'lt will not be a science f until it goes to the causes of events, appraises these causes in their just measure and depicts accurately and impartially the effects that naturally follow. It must give us knowledge not merely of facts, it must let us into the secret of the forces which contributed to the world's civilisation. There is no study more fascinating, none that gives a more philosophical cast to the mind, and lifts it to a higher range of thought. It is a salutary task thus to contemplate how in the past nations have either fulfilled God's purposes in their regard or have wandered away from their appointed destiny. Our age so easily satisfied with a superficial view of life cannot be urged too earnestly to turn to such books as those that treat of the inner meaning of history, the philosophy of that noble science. Catholics especially should be familiar with such masterpieces as T. W. Allies' Formation of Christendom, The Key to the. World's Progress, by C. S. Devas, Bossuet's Discours sur VEistoire Univer•sella, St. Augustine's City of God, the European Civilisation of James Balmes. In all these the very sold of history is laid bare by a master hand.

Stimulates Mental Powers. ./ We live in an age of scientific research. -*x We too often confine the word and the stud- %~j ies it indicates, to research pursued in the ™ chemical and biological laboratory. But tl.o word in its broadest and truest sense means search after truth in all departments of life and knowledge. The noblest form which that research can take is that which deals with the investigation of man's life and man's

struggles, his sorrows, triumphs, crimes and glories, the forces which have barred his upward ascent to the mountain-crests of high unprise, the evil powers which have cast him down into the glooms of defeat. Historical studies stimulate the love of truth in the highest form. The genuine student of past and present times wants to know them just as they are. As the chemist v. ill not register his final verdict until lie can give an account of every atom, acid, or alkali present in his retort, so will the historian refuse to pass judgment until he has all the elements for a just sentence under his control. He is therefore an indefatigable and merciless hunter after evidence. A mental attitude is slowly formed by the student of history which little by little solidifies his judgment, calms his passions, humanizes his views of his fellow-men, broadens his sympathies, clears his mind of the fogs of antagonisms and sympathies born solely of feeling, prejudice and emotion, and ultimately unsound. The true historian is Mi e truth itself, no respecter of persons. licit truth is genuine charity and the historian's motto ought to be that of the Carthaginian queen who dealt in even-handed justice w’th her own Tyrian subjects and their former Trojan foes : “Tros T>iriiis<iin: inihi inillo nil nine n.(i e hi r.” This, in more popular, if less classic words, is the doctrine of the square deal. History unites nations. History is man in action. The - protagonist of this mighty drama is man himself. Whether history I tells of the laws of the Modes and the Per--9 sians, of the heroism of the Machabees, or the lengthening windrows of Roman knights slain at Cannae by the Numidian horsemen of Hannibal, or paints Savonarola denouncing the crimes of Florence, or Luther nailing his theses on the church door at ’Wittenberg, or describes Rome tottering under the blows of the barbarians of the North, or Columbus summoning a continent from the mysterious depths of the western waters, or the day big with destiny when the Signers of the Declaration of Independence created a new nation, it is the story of men like ourselves that is brought before us. We can claim the glories as our own. In some way we must share the responsibilities of the blunders and the crimes. The defects and the vices which caused the downfall of the great and sapped the foundations of thrones and republics are to be found in our own hearts, just as there also may be hidden the seeds of the heroism of a Joan of Arc or the energy and daring of an Apostle. An increased respect for human nature should be the result, as well as a deepened sympathy for its inherent weakness and waywardness. Our lives are thus closely linked with the lives of others. At the same time, we can ehsily see that the nations which play their jr.irts in history, have a destiny allotted them . f lo Greece of old God gave the creative soul, j the aesthetic taste, the sentiment and the love of the beautiful, the philosophic mind. To Rome, the sense of power, the executive ability to control the destinies of the civilised world. America is the exponent and champion of liberty guarded by law. Not

vainly does Providence mark out a nation’s destinies. Only by remaining faithful to them can it thrive. There is such a thing as a nation’s vocation. Under penalty of moral and spiritual barrenness, no nation can dare neglect it. History will teach its children that they must foster their racial traditions, be true to the set course kept in the past, preserve their national identity and yet he ready to answer the reasonable demands of that common humanity found in all. Anticipates the Judgment of God. If it teaches anything, history teaches the abuse which man makes of his noblest gift of freedom. On its canvas painted by the hands of truth’s impartial artists, may be seen the triumph of injustice, the sufferings of virtue; innocence on the scaffold, tyranny on the throne, Paul in irons, Nero in the pomp and splendors of his Golden House. But the true historian while impartial cannot be impassive. He acquits the innocent victim, he condemns the unjust and cruel tyrant. As God by His solemn verdict at the end of time will re-establish the equilibrium of the outraged and violated moral law, the historian, anticipating that just sentence will calmly and dispassionately without fear or favor, summon victim and tyrant to His bar. The verdict He pronounces foreshadows that of truth and justice. The decisions of this Open Court are of the highest value for the formation of the conscience and the heart. A A