Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/66

 50 HISTORY OF GREECE. cules and Hyllus. Above all, Hercules is authenticated by the testimonies both of the Iliad and Odyssey." These positions appear to me inconsistent with any sound views of the conditions of historical testimony. According to what is here laid down, we are bound to accept as real all the persona mentioned by Homer, Arktinus, Lesches, the Hesiodic poets, Eumelus, Asius, etc., unless we can adduce some positive ground in each particular case to prove the contrary. If this position be a true one, the greater part of the history of England, from Brute ihe Trojan down to Julius Caesar, ought at once to be admitted as valid and worthy of credence. What Mr. Clinton here calls the early tradition, is in point of fact, the narrative of these early poets. The word tradition is an equivocal word, and begs the whole question ; for while in its obvious and literal meaning it implies only something handed down, whether truth or fiction, it is tacitly understood to imply a tale descriptive of some real matter of fact, taking its rise at the time when that fact happened, and originally accurate, but corrupted by subse- quent oral transmission. Understanding, therefore, by Mr. Clin- ton's words early tradition, the tales of the old poets, we shall find his position totally inadmissible, that we are bound to admit the persons or statements of Homer and Hesiod as real unless where we can produce reasons to the contrary. To allow this, would be to put them upon a par with good contemporary witnesses ; for no greater privilege can be claimed in favor even of Thucydides, than the title of his testimony to be believed unless where it can be contradicted on special grounds. The presumption in favor of an asserting witness is either strong or weak, or positively nothing, according to the compound ratio of his means of knowledge, his moral and intellectual habits, and his motive to speak the truth. Thus, for instance, when Hesiod tells us that his father quitted the .^Eolic Kyme, and came to Askra in Boeotia, we may fully believe him ; but when he de- scribes to us the battles between the Olympic gods and the Titans, or between Herakles and Cycnus, or when Homer depicts the efforts of Hector, aided by Apollo, for the defence of Troy, and the struggles of Achilles and Odysseus, with the assistance of Here and Poseidon, for the destruction of that city, events pro- fessedly long past and gone, we cannot presume either of them