[Illustration: THE WORLD showing the UNITED STATES and its Outlying Possessions _Copyright, 1909, by Rand, McNally & Company._] [Illustration: THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS] _A_ Beginner's History _by_ WILLIAM H. MACE _Formerly Professor of History in Syracuse University, Author of "Method in History," "A Working Manual of American History," "A School History of the United States," "Lincoln: The Man of the People," and "Washington: A Virginia Cavalier"_ _Illustrated by_ HOMER W. COLBY _Portraits by_ JACQUES REICH, P. R. AUDIBERT, _and_ B. F. WILLIAMSON [Illustration] RAND McNALLY & COMPANY _Chicago_ _New York_ _London_ Mace's Primary History _Copyright, 1909_, By WILLIAM H. MACE _All rights reserved_ Mace's Elementary History _Copyright, 1914_, By WILLIAM H. MACE Mace's Beginner's History _Copyright, 1914_, By WILLIAM H. MACE _Copyright, 1916_, By WILLIAM H. MACE _Copyright, 1921_, By WILLIAM H. MACE [Illustration] The Rand-McNally Press _Chicago_ THE PREFACE The material out of which the child pictures history lies all about him. When he learns to handle objects or observes men and other beings act, he is gathering material to form images for the stories you tell him, or those he reads. So supple and vigorous is the child's imagination that he can put this store of material to use in picturing a fairy story, a legend, or a myth. From this same source--his observation of the people and things about him--he gathers simple meanings and ideas of his own. He weaves these meanings and ideas, in part, into the stories he reads or is told. From the cradle to the grave he should exercise this habit of testing the men and institutions he studies by a comparison with those he has seen.