The opening of Preface
The present volume, as well as the companion volume of Readings, arose out of a practical situation. Twenty-two years ago, on entering Stanford University as a Professor of Education and being given the history of the subject to teach, I found it necessary, almost from the first, to begin the construction of a Syllabus of Lectures which would permit of my teaching the subject more as a phase of the history of the rise and progress of our Western civilization than would any existing text. Through such a study it is possible to give, better than by any other means, that vision of world progress which throws such a flood of light over all our educational efforts. The Syllabus grew, was made to include detailed citations to historical literature, and in 1902 was published in book form. In 1905 a second and an enlarged edition was issued, [1] and these volumes for a time formed the basis for classwork and reading in a number of institutions, and, though now out of print, may still be found in many libraries. At the same time I began the collection of a series of short, illustrative sources for my students to read.