Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/41

The Historical Point of View 5 This term may perhaps call up in the minds of some the vision of a solitary stoop-shouldered, spectacled en- thusiast, engaged in painfully deciphering obscure Latin abbreviations on yellow parchment. But it is a mis- take to conclude that the primary sources are always difficult to get at, dull, and hard to read. On the con- trary, they are sometimes ready to hand, and are often more vivid and entertaining than even the most striking descriptions by the pen of gifted writers like Gibbon or Macaulay. The best secondary authorities stand to the sources somewhat as the description of a work of art or of a masterpiece of literature stands to the original. Just as we cannot afford to ignore the picture itself, or the great poem or drama, and confine ourselves to some one else's account of it, so in our historical work we ought to grasp every opportunity of examining for ourselves the foundations upon which history rests. It may, of course, be urged that the trained historian, after acquainting himself with the men and the circum- stances of a particular period, can make better use of the sources than any relatively unskilled student. But, admit- ting the force of this argument, there is, nevertheless, so much to be learned from a study of the original accounts that cannot be reproduced by the most skilled hand, that no earnest student or reader should content himself with second-hand descriptions when primary sources are available. The sources are unconsciously molded by the spirit vividness of of the time in which they were written. Every line gives some hint of the period in which the author lived and makes an impression upon us which volumes of