Introduction to the Study of History #268461

Main subject. They will recognise, if they think over it, that the causes of this leaning are bad taste, a kind of naive vanity, sometimes a disordered mind. Again: The faults of historic works intended for the general public are the results of the insufficient prepara tion of the bad literary training of the popularisers. What an admirable criticism there is too of that peculiarly German shortcoming (one not, however, unknown elsewhere), which results in men whose learning is ample, whose monographs destined for scholars are highly praiseworthy, showing themselves capable, when they write for the public, of sinning heavily against scientific methods, so that, in their determination to stir their public, they who are so scrupulous and particular when it is a question of dealing with minutiae, abandon themselves like the mass of mankind to their natural inclinations when they come to set forth general questions. They take sides, they blame, they praise, they colour, they em bellish, they allow themselves to take account of personal, patriotic, ethical, or metaphysical considera tions. Above all, they apply themselves with what talent has fallen to their lot to the task of creating a work of art, and, so applying themselves, those of them who lack talent become ridiculous, and the.