Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/104

 C THUCYDIDES Compare Thucydides' description of the structure of the wall (i. 93 init.) : ' To this day the structure shows evidence of haste. The foundations are made up of all sorts of stones, in some places unwrought, and laid just as each worker brought them ; there were many columns too, taken from sepulchres, and many old stones already cut, inserted in the work.' Such appears to be the amount of light thrown upon Thucydides by Greek inscriptions. The comparison of them would have been more interesting had we been able freely to accept the conjectures of archaeologists. There is always a temptation to convert the uncertain and in- definite into the definite and certain. The greater the ingenuity the greater the fascination, though often the greater the improbability. But we must remember that there are myths or romances of modern criticism as well as of early history, and in the latter half of the nineteenth century we have not so much to fear from the last as from the first. "Icrws to /x^ /xv^wScs avTuiV drcpTreaTepov (f>aveiTai, but ixxfieXifxa KpLveLV atira apKovvTOi? €$€L. A feW grains of faCt secured to the world once for all are of more value than many brilliant theories which appear and disappear, like intellectual meteors, in successive generations. The evil tendency of the study is that it encourages the habit of conjecture, which has already been one of the great corruptions of philology. There is a necessity for making too much out of a few letters or words, and thus appearing to obtain a result commensurate with the labour spent upon them. The slenderness of his materials leads the enquirer to snatch at chance coincidences. His honest enthusiasm will sometimes make him forget that the words or letters upon which his conclusion is based are due to conjecture. He is too apt to apply an inscrip- tion to the interpretation of a difficulty in an ancient author. Where the balance of probability is just in favour of a conclusion, it is assumed by him to be a certainty;