Typed by Brett Fishburne (william.fishburne@verizon.net)
Proofed by Jenny Francisco (seattle717@yahoo.com)
By
JOHN H. HAAREN, LL.D.
District Superintendent of Schools
The City of New York
and
A. B. POLAND, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Newark N. J.
The study of history, like the study of a landscape, should beginwith the most conspicuous features. Not until these have been fixedin memory will the lesser features fall into their appropriateplaces and assume their right proportions.
The famous men of ancient and modern times are the mountain peaksof history. It is logical then that the study of history shouldbegin with the biographies of these men.
Not only is it logical; it is also pedagogical. Experience hasproven that in order to attract and hold the child's attentioneach conspicuous feature of history presented to him should havean individual for its center. The child identifies himself with thepersonage presented. It is not Romulus or Hercules or Cæsaror Alexander that the child has in mind when he reads, but himself,acting under similar conditions.
Prominent educators, appreciating these truths, have long recognizedthe value of biography as a preparation for the study of historyand have given it an important place in their scheme of studies.
The former practice in many elementary schools of beginning thedetailed study of American history without any previous knowledgeof general history limited the pupil's range of vision, restrictedhis sympathies, and left him without material for comparisons.Moreover, it denied to him a knowledge of his inheritance fromthe Greek philosopher, the Roman lawgiver, the Teutonic lover offreedom. Hence the recommendation so strongly urged in the report ofthe Page 4 Committeeof Ten—and emphasized, also, in the report of the Committeeof Fifteen—that the study of Greek, Roman and modern Europeanhistory in the form of biography should precede the study of detailedAmerican history in our elementary schools. The Committee of Tenrecommends an eight years' course in history, beginning with thefifth year in school and continuing to the end of the high schoolcourse. The first two years of this course are given wholly to thestudy of biography and mythology. The Committee of fifteen recommendsthat history be taught in all the grades of the elementary schooland emphasizes the value of biography and of general history.
The series of historical stories to which this volume belongs wasprepared in conformity with the foregoing recommendations and withthe best practice of leading schools. It has been the aim of theauthors to make an interesting story of each man's life and totell these stories in a style so simple that pupils in the lowergrades will read them with pleasure, and so dignified that theymay be used with profit as text-books for reading.
Teachers who find it impracticable to give to the study of mythologyand biography a place of its own in an already overcrowded curriculumusually prefer to correlate history with reading and for this purposethe volumes of this series will be found most desirable.
The value of the illustrations can scarcely be over-estimated.They will be found to surpass in number and excellence anythingheretofore offered in a school-book. For the most part they arereproductions of world-famous pictures, and