THE QUARTERLY
OF THE
Oregon Historical Society.
THE UNITY OF HISTORY.[1]
By H. W. SCOTT.
What is the meaning of history? Has history ascertainable meaning? Not if thought of as a catalogue of detached or unconnected events. But if considered as a continuous picture of mankind in action not repeated merely in events, but guided by the human spirit at work under constantly varying conditions of time and place, yet following a regular law of movement which it is the business of careful investigation to discover so considered history has meaning and use. It is a living whole. Cause and effect are here in their sources and flow and consequences. Whatever occurs depends on something or flows out of something that has preceded it. History is not a series of marvelous or unconnected events, like the patchwork scenes of badly constructed drama. The law of cause and of consequence rules over all.
The specific subject, then, to which I shall call your attention in this address is the unity of history. In a brief discourse a few only of the heads of so great a subject can be touched; but I hope to be able to present an
- ↑ Address at the Historical Congress, Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, Portland, Oregon, August 21, 1905.
