The Study of History at Yale University.

The study of history in some form, biblical or classical, may have been introduced into the curriculum of Yale College in its earliest years; but the first formal recognition of the subject was "the appointment of President Stiles to a professorship of ecclesiastical history in 1778. He held his professership till his death-in 1795-and after him it was held by Professor Kingsley from 1805 to 1817. There is abundant evidence that his interpretation of the field of ecclesiastical history was a very wide one; it was simply that he, an ecclesiastic, taught general history. I should be very loath to say that this professorship was the first introduction of history into our curriculum: but I do not know that the earlier stages of its career have ever been traced.

The regular courses of instruction at Yale were not printed until 1822; so that there is for the writer no available record of the standard of historical studies before that time. Judging from the actual status of that year, considerable attention must have been given to classical history, through the medium of ancient historians and Adams Roman Antiquities. Yale College has always been a stronghold of classical culture. During the first half of the nineteen century probably more students, both at Harvard and Yale, were fed upon the Scotch diet than upon any other historical material. When one contrasts the old-fashioned manuals of Adams and Eschenburg with the water-like "primers" which are everywhere in vogue, it is not surprising that a knowledge of ancient politics is dying out in American schools. In these days, when teachers and students alike are rushing toward modern studies in history and political science, it is refreshing to see such a wholesome treatment of Roman constitutional law as is presented at Yale. A scholarly balance between ancient and modern history is likely to be maintained by the faculty there. Academic interest in historical jurisprudence is steadily increasing in America.

To Professor Wheeler is due the system of a working library for his classes and for its proper equipment he raised a considerable sum of money. No system of historical instruction is more efficient than that which combines voluntary reading with required work and with suggestive lectures. The best elements of the old and new methods of historical training have been happily united at Yale. The general plan of European history specializing as it does upon modern Europe and the Constitutional history of England, impresses a student of methods in teaching as one of the most sensible, solid, and practically useful now in operation.