CONTENTS
[INTRODUCTION]
[I. Historical documents serve only as a clue to reconstruct the visible individual] 1
[II. The outer man is only a clue to study the inner, invisible man] 5
[III. The state and the actions of the inner and invisible man have their causes in certain general
ways of thought and feeling] 8
[Chief causes of thought and feeling. Their historical effects] 9
[The three primordial forces.—Race] 13
[Surroundings] 14
[Epoch] 16
[VI. History is a mechanical and psychological problem. Within certain limits man can foretell] 19
[Primordial Causes] 20
[VII. Law of formation of a group. Examples and indications] 23
[VIII. General problem and future of history. Psychological method. Value of literature.
Purpose in writing this book] 24
[BOOK I.—THE SOURCE]
[CHAPTER FIRST]
[The Saxons]
[SECTION I.—The Coast of the North Sea] 31
[SECTION II.—The Northern Barbarians] 34
[SECTION III.—Saxon Ideas] 46
[SECTION IV.—Saxon Heroes] 46
[SECTION V.—Pagan Poems] 53
[SECTION VI.—Christian Poems] 56
[SECTION VII.—Primitive Saxon Authors] 63
[SECTION VIII.—Virility of the Saxon Race] 71
[CHAPTER SECOND]
[The Normans]
[SECTION I.—The Feudal Man] 73
[SECTION II.—Normans and Saxons Contrasted] 73
[SECTION III.—French Forms of Thought] 80
[SECTION IV.—The Normans in England] 87
[SECTION V.—The English Tongue—Early English Literary Impulses] 91
[SECTION VI.—Feudal Civilization]103
[SECTION VII.—Persistence of Saxon Ideas]108
[SECTION VIII.—The English Constitution]113
[SECTION IX.—Piers Plowman and Wyclif]119
[CHAPTER THIRD]
[The New Tongue]
[SECTION I.—The First Great Poet]126
[SECTION II.—The Decline of the Middle Ages]127
[SECTION III.—The Poetry of Chaucer]128
[SECTION IV.—Characteristics of the Canterbury Tales]143
[SECTION V.—The Art of Chaucer]150
[SECTION VI.—Scholastic Philosophy]158