historians, and announces that any tommyrot, written from any "standpoint," is as good science as anything else, the thorough and conservative German makes the task of the historian impossible of accomplishment by claiming that scientific history must contain things which it is impossible for it to contain, and which, if it were possible to put them there, would make it absurd.
Weisengruen objects to the theory of the class-struggle. But not because there is no such struggle. Oh, no! That there is a struggle of the classes into which society is at present divided he can no more deny than Seligman can deny that the economic relations of society are the principal motive-power of History. But just as Seligman finds other "relations" which enable him to write history from all sorts of "standpoints," so does Weisengruen find all sorts of struggles which he claims must be "taken into account" by a scientific historian. These struggles, which, according to Weisengruen, go to make up real history, are not merely social struggles but also struggles between individuals, and are of every nature and description. His demands upon scientific history are, therefore, so many that they cannot all even be recounted here. Here are some of them, as a sample:
The "scientific" historian must embrace, with an "intuitive" gaze, the real essence of the period of which he desires to treat, and must at the same time be able to correctly measure its "psychical range." He must know every occurrence, even the smallest; and must be acquainted with every document, even of the least importance. And in order that the reader may not think lightly of this task, Weisengruen takes care to warn him of the insuperable difficulties which will beset the scientific historian. And those difficulties are indeed insuperable. For it must be remembered that Weisengruen does not refer to social occurrences, or public documents. No, he means every individual occurrence of any kind or description, and every private document of whatever import. Quarrels between husband and wife, neighborly gossip, love-letters, everything is here in-
