work up, from the material in this volume, the condition of slaves, or of colonial schools; or the dealings of the colonists with Indians; or the methods of raising troops for the Revolution; or the early American navy.

10. Use of Sources by Students and Investigators

WO theories of historical teaching contest for the field of education through history: the first, or English method, aims to ground students in well-chosen secondary books, which they are to read, assimilate, and compare, and the divergences between which they must note, though they have not the means to reconcile them. Even in English universities only the most highly-specialized historical students use sources as an essential part of their study and training.

The opposing method expects some knowledge of the original material. The student's work is based upon some rather brief text-book or combination of books, but from all students collateral use of sources is required. The English method may be compared to an orderly ship canal, going straight to the end, with an ascertained depth of water, but always shallow and confined: the other method, to a natural river, abounding in deep pools, and joined by a multitude of branches which one cannot explore, with many unfordable places, but winding among human habitations, and giving glimpses of human life.

To facilitate study through sources, a variety of written exercises have been devised, for which students gather and compare original evidence on important points. The merits of this system have been set forth above (Nos. 8, 9). Though applicable at all ages, the use of sources becomes more and more valuable, however, as the student advances; and when he reaches the highest stage of the student's work, - the preparation of materials for a thorough-going account of some episode or period, — sources are the reservoirs from which he must draw most of his knowledge.

Such a collection as this book contains may serve as a beginning to the ambitious student; but it will have accomplished less than its design if it do not lead him to wish for the full texts from which these extracts are taken, for additional information on some one question which interests him, and for that acquaintance with original material and the methods of using it which gives a student at once an insight into past times and a power to reproduce them before the minds of his readers.

Former historians have had to collect and organize their material in painful and expensive fashion. Jared Sparks and Francis Parkman each accumulated a costly set of transcripts of manuscripts. For future historians, much of the most valuable material is now in print; and though no one will ever again set himself to George Bancroft's task of writing a general history of the United States entirely from sources, the special works which are to be the foundation of new views must rest wholly on such materials. Although large collections of printed sources are now available, many of them have not yet been examined by competent writers, and discoveries of great importance are still to be made by the investigator. For example, the manuscript of Boudinot's valuable reminiscences (No. 180) had not been printed till 1896.

FO

II. Use of Sources by Readers

OR the numerous class of persons who have not the opportunity to be students, or the inclination to investigate, sources are useful by way of arousing the imagination and filling up the sketch made by the secondary writer. All that has been said about the usefulness of materials for the teacher and pupil applies equally to the self-taught. Sources alone are one-sided, because they lack perspective and comparison of views, and because they leave great gaps. Secondary works alone are also one-sided, because they tell us about people, instead of letting the people tell us about themselves. The ideal method is to read a brief sketch of colonial history, such as Professor Fisher's Colonial Era; then some illustrative extracts from sources; then a fuller work like that of Parkman or like John Fiske's books, with a larger collateral use of sources. Upon the general subject of home study of American history, Channing and Hart have a discussion in the Guide to American History, § 13.

Among the reprints in this book likely to be most interesting to readers are the witches' testimony (No. 17); Goelet on Boston (Nos. 23, 84); Gabriel Thomas on Pennsylvania (No. 25); Burnaby on New York (No. 32); Eliza Lucas on Carolina (Nos. 35, 83); the slavery question in Georgia (No. 42); Douglass on colonial government (No. 50); Clinton on a governor's perquisites (No. 57); Morris's veto (No. 65); Zenger on his prosecution (No. 72); Providence town-meeting (No. 78); extracts from Franklin's autobiography (No. 81); a plea for protective duties

(No. 86); Ames's college diary (No. 95); Wesley's journal (No. 99); Woolman's journal (No. 106); Colden on the fur trade (No. 111); Adair on the Indians (No. 113); Knox on Quebec (No. 129); Doddridge on the West (No. 136); Franklin's examination (No. 143); Andrews's account of the Tea-Party (No. 152); Sam Johnson's tory argument (No. 156); Scammell's love-letter (No. 162); Graydon on recruiting (No. 170); Chastellux's visit to Washington's camp (No. 176); Pausch's army life (No. 179); Richard Smith on the Continental Congress (No. 185); Abigail Adams on the siege of Boston (No. 192); Dr. Waldo on Valley Forge (No. 198); John Paul Jones's capture of the Serapis (No. 204); Pynchon's diary (No. 208); Gordon's retirement of Washington (No. 219).

THE

12. Use of Sources by Libraries

HE triple object of most libraries is to entertain, to inform, and to instruct. Sources may fulfil all these objects. Boys who like Robinson Crusoe will certainly like Thomas (No. 25), Franklin (No. 81), Goelet (No. 84), Ames (No. 95), Adair (No. 113), Clark (No. 201), and Jones (No. 204). Girls who enjoy Strickland's Queens of England will like lively Eliza Lucas (Nos. 35, 83), and the steadfast Abigail Adams (No. 192). The student of German history will be glad to follow the Germans into the new world (Nos. 29, 40, 179). The colonial writers ooze with rugged, genuine human nature, interesting to those who are interested in their kind. Who can read of Oglethorpe in Georgia (No. 39), or of Daniel Boone (No. 134), or of Major André (No. 183), without wishing to know more of these men and their writings?

The other functions of the library to inform and to instruct -are equally provided for by proper use of sources, which are the adjunct of the teacher, the reservoir of the pupil, and the nutritious intellectual food of the general reader. Of the extracts in this volume, those from works like Sewall's, John Adams's, and Franklin's are available in many libraries in the full text; but many of the pieces are hard to come at, and for a person whose time is limited such a selection as this may be more useful. As regular standard reading matter, the libraries may well provide some sources.

In those larger libraries which aim at general completeness, or at special historical collections, it is an obvious duty to put abundant sources on their shelves, for the benefit of the students and investigators who must have a large range. The sources are scientific material comparable with the fossils of the paleontologists, by the use of which the popular books are to be written, as well as the general scientific treatises. Not to have them is to ignore one of the principal objects of libraries, the preservation of accumulated knowledge from age to age.

For libraries especially is intended the list of most valuable sources printed above (Nos. 5, 6), which may suggest purchases in this field.

VALU

13. Caution in using Sources

ALUABLE as are original records, they must be used intelligently or they will mislead. First of all, they are not all of equal authority or of equal value. To turn an inexperienced student unguided among sources is to invite errors, for sometimes even sources are untruthful. How is the tyro to know, for example, that letters purporting to be written by George Washington were forged and set afloat during the Revolution? Sometimes a writer bears internal evidence of malice or of untruthfulness, as Simcoe in his account of his loyalist corps (No. 181), in which his animus against the patriots is plain enough. But, without warning, how is one to know that Edward Randolph (No. 34), shrewd observer as he was, was sent to the colonies with the mission of finding something wrong, and was bound to justify his employment? The value of many sources depends on the writer's truthfulness, which cannot be attacked without training and the sifting of later evidence. Most reprints of old pieces, especially those in the proceedings of historical societies, include a critical account of the writer. Other criticisms may be found in Moses Coit Tyler, History of American Literature during the Colonial Time (2 vols.), and Literary History of the American Revolution (2 vols., New York, 1897); in Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America (8 vols., Boston, 1886-1889); in Henry T. Tuckerman, America and her Commentators (New York, 1864); in S. Austin Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature, and British and American Authors (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1858-1871). Extracts from records and formal documents (as in Nos. 21, 38, 78, 187), may usually be relied

upon; but even such a document as Vergennes's despatch (No. 216) is a special plea, and does not state the whole truth.

In the next place, even contemporaries had not all the same opportunities for seeing things. Maury (No. 37) knew that Patrick Henry had made a tremendous speech against him, but he probably understood the law of his case very imperfectly. Dr. Douglass's views of his countrymen (No. 50) are tinged by his conviction that other doctors did not understand how to treat small-pox; Edmund Burke (No. 44) was at a long distance from the colonies; Colonel Winslow (No. 126) did not take seriously to heart the misery of the transported Acadians; Captain Pausch (No. 179) felt a natural hostility toward the rival British troops. Nearly all the pieces in this volume are the statements of eye-witnesses, recorded at or near the time; but even they must have taken flying rumors, as did Dunmore (No. 154), Williams (No. 160), and Pynchon (No. 208). Violent prejudices and prepossessions make it necessary to supplement such narratives as Lawson's (No. 16), Sam Johnson's (No. 156), and Drayton's (No. 157) by calmer testimony and by statements from the other side; and this is especially necessary in the intensity of feeling attending such a period as the Revolution. We cannot understand the real causes and force of that mighty movement unless we realize how strong was the opposition; inasmuch as even good and honest writers may not have the gift of lucid description, and may flounder about like Dr. Douglass (No. 50) or Thomas Story (No. 98).

But while secondary writers may correct the errors of the original writers, and show the relation of one event with another, they have also their prejudices and make their mistakes. One of the first lessons to be learned by a child beginning the study of history is that it is difficult and often impossible to get at the exact truth, just as it is hard to get at the facts of every-day current events. To the secondary book one must look for a survey of the whole field, an indispensable service; to sources we must still turn for that reality, that flavor of real human life and thought, which may be had only by reading the words written while history was making.