It may be superfluous to remind the reader at the beginning of the difficulties inherent in the presentation of medieval history. The appreciation of this fact, however, may serve somewhat to compensate the conscientious teacher who looks back upon his successive efforts to present the subject with anything but a feeling of satisfaction. When the German schoolmaster admits, as does Dr. Jaeger, after the reading of thousands of pages in preparation for his work that “the medieval world is essentially alien to our comprehension, and that vivid and realistic description--the most fruitful part of our instruction--is only possible here to a very moderate extent,[2]” the teacher on this side of the Atlantic has no reason to feel chagrined over his own failures. On the contrary he can approach his task with the satisfaction which comes from the feeling that he is assisting others in the solution of a most difficult problem. It must also be remembered that the German teacher has this advantage--of which he makes full use--that he is presenting the middle ages as the American teacher presents the colonial period, to furnish a background for the proper understanding of his own history. Medieval Culture. The middle ages do not require the elaborate, detailed treatment of later periods; and yet it must be admitted that much time will often be consumed in securing anything like an intelligent comprehension of the rudiments or elements of the subject. The period may be approached from many points of view. Possibly the most fruitful are the culture side and the idealistic side. It is indeed possible to combine these two ideas. So much of our literature pictures medieval society, especially as it has to do with the castle and the monastery, that the first phase cannot fail to prove attractive. Dr. Jaeger further points out that the men of this period, intellectually so narrow minded, so uncultured and so limited, would go to any extreme, sacrificing their personal comfort, aye, even their lives in their devotion to an idea. At one extreme stands the warrior, at the other the monk, and yet how much they resemble each other. The monk penetrates the forests of Germany and braves unknown dangers in his devotion to mother church; the crusader, no less of a devotee, lays down his life under a foreign sky, far removed from home and friends. There is then much that is attractive in the period if we follow it with this second thought in mind. Although these men were living embodiments of ideas which may be “alien to our comprehension,” their very ardor and enthusiasm become contagious, once the teacher catches a little of the spirit which animated them. Around some of these great personalities, too, can be woven much of the life of the times. A Charlemagne not only becomes the embodiment of the imperial idea, but behind him looms the shadowy outlines of the imperial system; a Richard I suggests the castle, the tournament, the flower of chivalry, the knight-errant;