Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/26

xxiv impressions to have been made to which the man himself was profoundly insensible, losing the distinctness of the life of which we treat in the rank overgrowth of circumstances which form no part of it. It does not help us much towards knowing more of the life of a man to have pictures, however clear, of all the places in which he has lived, or biographical notices of all his contemporaries. To guard against such dangers there must be some self-restraint in the use of materials, which on this plan are almost as unlimited as they are scanty on the other, watchfulness for facts which are really suggestive, or present points of contact with the man's acts or writings, caution in pressing too far what may be merely imaginary, care not to overlook anything, however trifling it may at first appear, which is really significant. If these conditions are fulfilled, the attempt may be made with a fair expectation of success. Out of a few fossil bones the geologist constructs the whole framework of some huge and highly-organised skeleton. Out of hints that lie below the surface, fragments scattered here and there in many different books, undesigned coincidences, light has been thrown, with a fulness beyond all that could have been expected, on the lives of David and St Paul. It is possible that a like attempt, though made with far scantier and less promising materials, may not fail utterly in writing the life of Sophocles.