effort to think of it otherwise; and thus, failing to gratify our historic sense in its natural demand for authenticity, it evokes less interest than any authentic episode that is recorded, say, of the Field of Waterloo.

6. Rather know one authentic deed of Hercules than all the fables about him.-"I have been in several actions," says Philip de Comines, "where for one man that was really slain, they have reported a hundred.” 1 There's the mischief: so many witnesses have so small a passion for the truth. Rather let us know one authentic deed of Hercules than all the fables about him; tell us of some fact, of some notable battle, rather than fable of streams of blood able to turn mills "— as in some monkish historians.

7. Of the dream of Cræsus, &c.-Nor do we derive much historic pabulum from such stories as that of the dream of Croesus about his son Atys and its involuntary fulfilment at the hands of Adrastus, or of the descent of Rhampsinitus into Hades, or of the twenty-nine years' siege of Azotus by Psammetichus, or of the miracle which happened at the temple of Minerva Pronæa.2 In the main they do but raise our curiosity as to what might be the historic basis of those stories.

8. Suetonian Stories.-Suetonius tells us that when Claudius in his first consulship was entering the Forum with the fasces for the first time, an eagle alighted upon his right shoulder, and that this prodigy was prophetic of the dignity to which he was to rise.3 Mere flimflam, I should say, without doubt; and far less interesting, in my opinion, than a common, true, official account

1 'Memoirs,' p. 130. The Duke of Burgundy lost at Granson 'not above seven men-at-arms. The rest fled, and the Duke with them."-Ib., p. 400.

2 'Herodotus,' i. 34-45; ii. 122; ii. 157; viii. 37. 3 'Lives of the Cæsars: Claudius,' chap. vii.

of what actually took place would have been. Touching the race of the Cæsars, he gravely writes: "The race of the Cæsars became extinct in Nero, an event prognosticated by various signs, two of which were particularly significant. Formerly, when Livia, after her marriage with Augustus, was making a visit to her villa at Veii, an eagle flying by let drop upon her lap a hen with a sprig of laurel in her mouth, just as she had seized it. Livia gave orders to have the hen taken care of "-no wonder, I should think!"and the sprig of laurel set; and the hen reared such a numerous brood of chickens that the villa to this day is called the Villa of the Hens. The laurel grove," he continues, "flourished so much that the Cæsars procured thence the boughs and crowns they wore at their triumphs. It was also their constant custom to plant others on the same spot immediately after a triumph; and it was observed a little before the death of each prince the tree which had been set by him died away. But in the last year of Nero the whole plantation of laurels perished to the very roots, and the hens all died"; and about the same time the temple of the Cæsars, being struck with lightning, the heads of all the statues in it fell off at once, and the sceptre of Augustus was dashed from his hands." 1 He declares that while Galba, during his pro-consulship in Hispania Tarraconensis, was sacrificing in a temple, "a boy who attended with a censer became, all of a sudden, grey-headed"; that this incident "was regarded by some as a token of an approaching revolution in the Government; and that an old man should succeed a young one"; and that not long after a thunderbolt falling into a lake in Cantabria, twelve axes were found in it, a manifest sign of the supreme 1 'Lives of the Cæsars: Galba,' chap. i.

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power.

Now I do not contend that these stories have no interest. On the contrary, they are very interesting to the student of Humanity as showing the astounding credulity and superstition of the Ages which produced them, and the extreme feebleness of their understanding of the nature and demands of historic evidence-a fact which should always be of the utmost significance to our theologians and Biblical critics especially; but however inventive and amusing such stories may be particularly that of the boy suddenly becoming grey-headed,-it seems to me that it would have been far preferable to have known the fabric of fact, if any, upon which they rested, even on the score of general interest.

9. Julius Cæsar frequently seems to trifle with the truth. The great Julius himself seems to trifle with truth in the most extravagant manner, especially as to the numbers of the foes he encountered and overcame-e.g., the Nervii.2 So Hirtius, in his account, say, of the battle of Munda.3 Such stories should only be told to simple people if the teller desires a receptive audience to such people, for instance, as the Mariners of England.

10. Vitality is the Soul of narrative.-Similar remarks would apply to the early histories of all countries exemplified, for instance, in Ethelward's 'Chronicle,' Asser's 'Life of Alfred,' Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'British History.' In any case, we require life or the life-like in a narrative. Fictitious narrative, of course, may be so well conceived and so well written as to render it undistinguishable almost from historic narrative, in which case the fictitious will vie with the historic in general interest-e.g., Sir Walter's super-excel

lent Waverley.' Vitality is the soul of narrative. Cæteris paribus, the most interesting of fictitious narratives will be that which is least distinguishable from the true. Glance, for instance, at some Bible stories.

11. The Story of Ruth and Naomi.-Naomi said to Ruth: "Behold thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people and unto her gods; return thou after thy sister-in-law." And Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave thee, for whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God. Where thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.' Whether this story be essentially true or essentially fictitious, nobody can positively say; but for literary purposes it matters not. It is a beautiful story of beautiful friendship. True or fictitious, it is full of vitality. It is a tender little poem as it stands. Let a painter be attracted to the subject and succeed in bringing out the fulness of its beauty upon his canvas, and he will be a great artist. The value of the canvas so covered will scarcely be expressible in mere guineas. If the story be fiction only, its surpassing merit lies in the fact that it reads like essential truth.

12. Of Eli's death. Or take the story of Eli's death. "The Ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the Army, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat watching, for his heart trembled for the Ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told

1 Blake's rendering of the story in the Tate Gallery seems to me to be but a barren effort.

it, all the city cried out. And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said: What meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily and told Eli. Now Eli was ninetyeight years old, and his eyes were dim, that he could not see. And the man said unto Eli: I am he that came out of the Army, and I fled to-day out of the Army. And he said, What is there done, my son ? And the messenger answered and said: Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there also hath been a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the Ark of God is taken. And it came to pass that when he made mention of the Ark of God, Eli fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died." The facts of this narrative contain the essence of splendid tragedy. Supposing that a dramatist were to choose the story of Eli as the subject of a drama, the happiest thing he could do would be to develop his drama from the simple facts set forth in this simple narrative.

13. Of Samuel and Agag.-Again, note that scene from the life of Samuel. "Then said Samuel, bring ye hither to me Agag the King of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal." There is no grimmer passage in all the pages of fictional literature. It vibrates with the life of a stern fanatical nation in its sternest and most fanatical mood.

14. Of David and Jonathan.-In another vein the history of the friendship between Jonathan and David is probably as noble and beautiful and