Page:A History of Ancient Greek Literature.djvu/211

 THE SPEECHES IN THUCYDIDES 187 Of course we should have preferred a verbatim re- port ; and of course Thucydides's practice wants a Thucydides to justify it. But if we compare these speeches with the passages in VHI. where he has given us the same kind of matter in indirect form, one in- cHnes to think that the artificial and fictitious speech is the clearer and more ultimately adequate. The fact is that in his ideal of history Thucydides was almost as far from Polybius as from Herodotus. Careful- ness and truth, of course, come absolutely first, as with Polybius. ^^ Of the things done in the war" (as distinguished from the speeches) "/ have not thought fit to write from casual information nor according to any notion of my own. Parts I saw myself; for the rest, which I learned from others, I inquired to the fulness of my power about every detail. The truth was hard to find, because eye-witnesses of the same events spoke differently as their memories or their sympathies varied. The book will perhaps seem dull to listen to, because there is no myth in it. But if those who wish to look at the truth about what happened in the war, and the passages like it which are sure according to man's nature to recur in the future, judge my work to be useful, I shall be content. What I have written is a thing to possess and keep always, not a performance for passing entertainment." He seeks truth as diligently and relentlessly as a modern antiquary who has no object for conceal- ment or exaggeration. But his aim is a different one. He is not going to provide material for his readers to work upon. He is going to do the whole work him- self — to be the one judge of truth, and as such to give his results in artistic and final form, no evidence produced and no source quoted. A significant point,