Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/15



record of the Human Past is not all contained in printed books. Man's history has been graven on the rock of Egypt, stamped on the brick of Assyria, enshrined in the marble of the Parthenon,—it rises before us a majestic Presence in the piled up arches of the Coliseum,—it lurks an unsuspected treasure amid the oblivious dust of archives and monasteries,—it is embodied in all the heir-looms of religions, of races, of families, in the relics which affection and gratitude, personal or national, pride of country or pride of lineage, have preserved for us,—it lingers like an echo on the lips of the peasantry, surviving in their songs and traditions, renewed in their rude customs with the renewal of Nature's seasons,— we trace it in the speech, the manners, the type of living nations, its associations invest them as with a garb,—we dig it out from the barrow and the Necropolis, and out of the fragments thus found reconstruct in museums of antiquities something like an image of the Past,—we contemplate this image in fairer proportions, in more exact lineaments, as it has been transmitted by endless reflections in the broken mirror of art.

Again, the vouchers for Printed History, the title-deeds of our great heritage of Printed Literature, are not all preserved in printed texts.

Before there can be Composed History, there must be evidences and documents. Tradition Oral and Tradition Monumental; before the publication of Printed Literature, there