Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/134

 n6 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.ea. § 2. History of tJic Israelites and their Religion. The Israelites were possessed of no arts or even handicrafts until about the tenth century before our era ; when by giving them- selves a king and a capital, the conditions of their social life were modified, and a taste for luxury and the building of public and private edifices of a more or less sumptuous nature were thereby induced. Properly speaking, their history begins with the advent of monarchy ; the days that went before are shrouded in obscure traditions of a mythical character ; whilst the books dealing with this part of it were written centuries after the events they purpose to recount. Such books, moreover, were indited under the influence of ideas and beliefs which were at great variance with those of former generations. Their anonymous writers are un- mindful, not to say utterly devoid of historical truth, in our sense of the word. A preconceived system is evident throughout their narrative ; unconsciously and without premeditation on their part, they yield to the temptation of " touching up " and interpreting facts so as to fit them in with their " in petto " ideal theocratical government. Thus the evidence furnished by tradition, when pressed into service, is but to add and complete the chain of evidence set forth from their individual point of view. In con- ditions such as these the image of a remote past could not but be substantially altered. Fortunately for us, when they tried to fix in their texts traditionary fragments still afloat among the people, owing to the inadequacy of the compiler to imitate the language of an older epoch, and disguise the joining of the pieces, or smooth away contradictions and fuse the whole into an homogeneous mass, such fragments were incorporated as pieces into a mosaic, hence they are still recognizable, notably in the books that received their definitive form under the last kings of Judah, during the captivity, or immediately after it. Such contradictions are frequently notice- able from one chapter to another, and sometimes even from one verse to another. To a narrative presenting facts naturally and as they must have occurred, without transition or leading up of the part, there follows another, sometimes distinct, or interwoven with the main thread for the evident purpose of exalting some personage, or adding weight to the political or religious bias of the compiler ; involving addition or retrenchment as the case might be. Here and there the touches reveal a light hand, which the acumen of