Produced by Turgut Dincer, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE PURPOSE OF HISTORY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS SALES AGENTS NEW YORK: LEMCKE & BUECHNER 30-32 WEST 27TH STREET LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD AMEN CORNER, E. C. THE PURPOSE OF HISTORY BY FREDERICK J. E. WOODBRIDGE [Illustration: Logo] New York COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 1916 _All rights reserved_ Copyright, 1916, BY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS. Printed from type, July, 1916. NOTE This book contains three lectures delivered at the University of North Carolina on the McNair Foundation in March of the current year. It expresses certain conclusions about history to which I have been led by the study of the history of philosophy and by reflection on the work of contemporary philosophers, especially Bergson, Dewey, and Santayana. I am happy to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Faculty and Students of the University of North Carolina for a most delightful visit at Chapel Hill. F. J. E. W. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK JUNE, 1916 CONTENTS I. FROM HISTORY TO PHILOSOPHY 1 II. THE PLURALISM OF HISTORY 27 III. THE CONTINUITY OF HISTORY 58 THE PURPOSE OF HISTORY I FROM HISTORY TO PHILOSOPHY The serious study of history is characteristic of a certain maturity of mind. For the intellectually young, the world is too new and attractive to arouse in them a very absorbing interest in its past. Life is for them an adventure, and the world is a place for excursions and experiences. They care little about what men have done, but much about what they might do. History, to interest them, must be written as a romance which will fire their imagination, rather than as a philosophy which might make them wise. But maturity, somewhat disciplined and disillusioned, confirms the suspicion, which even youth entertains at times, that the world, while offering an opportunity, hedges the offer about with restrictions which must be understood and submitted to, if effort is to be crowned with success. The mature may thus become eager to understand life without ceasing to enjoy it. They may become philosophical and show their wisdom by a desire to sympathize with what men have done and to live rationally in the light of what is possible. They may study history, convinced that it enlarges their sympathies and promotes rational living.