that of historical
experts--men who are devoting their lives to the study of history. Words
of approval from them are worth more than any popular recognition, for
theirs is the enduring praise. Their criticism should be respected;
there should be unceasing effort to avoid giving them cause for
fault-finding. No labor should be despised which shall enable one to
present things just as they are. Our endeavor should be to think
straight and see clear. An incident should not be related on
insufficient evidence because it is interesting, but an affair well
attested should not be discarded because it happens to have a human
interest. I feel quite sure that the cardinal aim of Gardiner was to be
accurate and to proportion his story well. In this he has succeeded; but
it is no drawback that he has made his volumes interesting. Jacob D.
Cox, who added to other accomplishments that of being learned in the
law, and who looked upon Gardiner with such reverence that he called him
the Chief Justice, said there was no reason why he should read novels,
as he found Gardiner's history more interesting than any romance. The
scientific historians have not revolutionized historical methods, but
they have added much. The process of accretion has been going on since,
at any rate, the time of Herodotus, and the canons for weighing evidence
and the synthesis of materials are better understood now than ever
before, for they have been reduced from many models. I feel sure that
there has been a growth in candor. Compare the critical note to a later
edition which Macaulay wrote in 1857, maintaining the truth of his
charge against William Penn, with the manly way in which Gardiner owns
up when an error or insufficient evidence for a statement is pointed
out. It is the ethics of the profession to be forward in correcting
errors. The difference between the old and the new lies in the desire to
have men think you are infallible and the desire to be accurate.

THE PROFESSION OF HISTORIAN

Lecture read before the History Club of Harvard University, April 27,
1908, and at Yale, Columbia, and Western Reserve Universities.

THE PROFESSION OF HISTORIAN

I am assuming that among my audience there are some students who aspire
to become historians. To these especially my discourse is addressed.

It is not to be expected that I should speak positively and in detail on
matters of education. Nevertheless, a man of sixty who has devoted the
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