II. Intellectual Habits (not obligatory). (1) Language (vocabulary, syntax, phonetics, semasiology). Handwriting. (2) Arts: A. Plastic arts (conditions of production, conceptions, methods, works). B. Arts of expression, music, dance, literature. (3) Sciences (conditions of production, methods, results). (4) Philosophy and Morals (conceptions, precepts, actual practice). (5) Religion (beliefs, practices).[189]
III. Material Customs (not obligatory). (1) Material life: A. Food (materials, modes of preparing, stimulants). B. Clothes and personal adornment. C. Dwellings and furniture. (2) Private life: A. Employment of time (toilette, care of the person, meals). B. Social ceremonies (funerals and marriages, festivals, etiquette). C. Amusements (modes of exercise and hunting, games and spectacles, social meetings, travelling).
IV. Economic Customs. (1) Production: A. Agriculture and stock-breeding. B. Exploitation of minerals. (2) Transformation, Transport and industries:[190] technical processes, division of labour, means of communication. (3) Commerce: exchange and sale, credit. (4) Distribution: system of property, transmission, contracts, profit-sharing.
V. Social Institutions. (1) The family: A. Constitution, authority, condition of women and children. B. Economic organisation.[191] Family property, succession. (2) Education and instruction (aim, methods, personnel). (3) Social classes (principle of division, rules regulating intercourse).
VI. Public Institutions (obligatory). (1) Political institutions: A. Sovereign (personnel, procedure). B. Administration, services (war, justice, finance, &c.). C. Elected authorities, assemblies, electoral bodies (powers, procedure). (2) Ecclesiastical institutions (the same divisions). (3) International institutions: A. Diplomacy. B. War (usages of war and military arts). C. Private law and commerce.
>This grouping of facts according to their nature is combined with the system of grouping by time and place; we thus obtain chronological, geographical, or, national sections in each branch. The history of a species of activity (language, painting, government) subdivides into the history of periods, countries, and nations (history of the ancient Greek language, history of the government of France in the nineteenth century).
The same principles aid in determining the order in which the facts are to be arranged. The necessity of presenting facts one after another obliges us to adopt some methodical rule of succession. We may describe successively either all the facts which relate to a given place, or those which relate to a given country, or all the facts of a given species. All historical matter can be distributed in three different kinds of order: chronological order, geographical order, that kind of order which is governed by the nature of actions and is generally called logical order. It is impossible to use any of these orders exclusively: in every chronological exposition there necessarily occur geographical or logical cross-divisions, transitions from one country to another, or from one species of facts to a different species, and conversely. But it is always necessary to decide which shall be the main order into which the others enter as subdivisions.
It is a delicate matter to choose between these three orders; our choice will be decided by different reasons according to the subject, and according to the public for whom we are working. That is to say, it will depend on the method of exposition; it would take up too much space to give the theory of it.
>II. When we come to the selection of historical facts for classification and arrangement, a question is raised which has been disputed with considerable warmth.
Every human action is by its nature an individual transient phenomenon which is confined to a definite time and a definite place. Strictly speaking, every fact is unique. But every action of a man resembles other actions of the same man, or of other members of the same group, and often to so great a degree that the whole group of actions receives a common name, in which their individuality is lost. These groups of similar actions, which the human mind is irresistibly impelled to form, are called habits, usages, institutions. These are merely constructions of the mind, but they are imposed so forcibly on our intellect that many of them must be recognised and constantly employed; habits are collective facts, possessing extension in time and space. Historical facts may therefore be considered under two different aspects: we may regard either the individual, particular, and transient elements in them, or we may look for what is collective, general, and durable. According to the first conception, history is a continuous narrative of the incidents which have happened among men in the past; according to the second, it is the picture of the successive habits of humanity.