The text which follows differs from the many inter esting and valuable school histories which have preceded it in laying greater emphasis upon the Contemporary Period. This change of values re?ects, I think, the ten deney of American schools of history, and these in turn are responding to the growing world-interests of the American people. An expansion of the Nineteenth Cen tury implies a corresponding contraction in the earlier centuries, the period of historical instruction remaining constant. It is a pity, when the history of Europe is everywhere so attractive; but it is inevitable. Our fore fathers were content with classical, and often with myth ical personages we have been made to comprehend our Luther and Loyola, our Mirabeau and Napoleon; and. Our children will have to make more room for their Ca vour, their Bismarck, and their Gladstone. It is a choice of benefits, and there are many substantial reasons why, in the building up of a system of popular education, the present should not be sacrificed to the past.
