to both. It is certainly useful for the former to get some
idea of the tools of the scholar and of original investigation,
while the latter class must needs get a bird's-eye view of the
whole field of their work, so that later they may not lose
their bearings in the details of special investigation. Both
must follow the lectures with attention, whether they are
devoted to the logical development of the meaning of his-
tory or to the presentation of connected facts. Yet the lec-
tures are not enough. Especially for the latter and much
less numerous class is a closer introduction to the real work
of the scholar, to personal activity, desirable. This need for
many years has been met sometimes in the seminaries under
public authority, and sometimes by personal encouragement
in voluntary practice courses.
"Since the beginning of my university teaching it has been a pleasure to me to conduct historical practice courses {his- torische Uehungen). More than once I have had the good fortune to see young men of ability and zeal take part in them.^ Gradually works were produced which were not without scholarly significance; they threw light on difficult points in a new way, and, as they were additions to our knowledge, were not unworthy of being presented to the attention of the learned public. Yet I could not bring myself to encourage the publication of disconnected essays. The ambition which is inseparably connected with one's first publication, with one's entrance into the literary world, should be fixed upon a worthy and important subject. It also seemed to me more advisable to promote the joint pro- duction of a more considerable work which should contribute something essential, as we Germans say, and perhaps fill a gap, rather than merely to put forth a specimen of our activ- ity, in which the world could have little interest. In 1834, upon my suggestion, the Philosophical Faculty of the Uni- versity of Berlin offered a prize for the best essay on the life and work of King Henry I. Several members of our club
1 These sentences, written in 1837, clearly indicate that Ranke's seminary was then more than four years old.
