434 HISTORY OF GREECE. The general disposition to adopt the semi-historical theory as to the genesis of Grecian mythes, arises in part from reluctance in critics to impute to the mythopceic ages extreme credulity or fraud ; together with the usual presumption, that where much is believed some portion of it must be true. There would be some weight in these grounds of reasoning, if the ages under discus- sion had been supplied with records and accustomed to critical inquiry. But amongst a people unprovided with the former and strangers to the latter, credulity is naturally at its maximum, as well in the narrator himself as in his hearers : the idea of delib- erate fraud is moreover inapplicable, 1 for if the hearers are dis- posed to accept what is related to them as a revelation from the Muse, the oestrus of composition is quite sufficient to impart a similar persuasion to the poet whose mind is penetrated with it. The belief of that day can hardly be said to stand apart by itself as an act of reason. It becomes confounded with vivacious im- agination and earnest emotion ; and in every case where these mental excitabilities are powerfully acted upon, faith ensues un- consciously and as a matter of course. How active and promi- nent such tendencies were among the early Greeks, the extraor- dinary beauty and originality of their epic poetry may teach us. It is, besides, a presumption far too largely and indiscriminately applied, even in our own advanced age, that where much is be- lieved, something must necessarily be true that accredited fiction is always traceable to some basis of historical truth. 2 The 1 In reference to the loose statements of the Highlanders, Dr. Johnson ob- serves, " He that goes into the Highlands with a mind naturally acquies- cent, and a credulity eager for wonders, may perhaps come back with an opinion very different from mine ; for the inhabitants, knowing the ignorance of all strangers in their language and antiquities, are perhaps not very scru- pulous adherents to truth ; yet I do not say that they deliberately speak stud- ied falsehood, or have a settled purpose to deceive. They have acquired and considered little, and do not always feel their own ignorance. They are not much accustomed to be interrogated by others, and seem never to have thought of interrogating themselves ; so that if they do not know what they tell to be true, they likewise do not distinctly perceive it to be false. Mr. Boswell was very dili- gent in his inquiries, and the result of his investigations was, that the answer to the second question was commonly such as nullified the answer to the first." (Journey to the Western Islands, p. 272, 1st edit., 1775).
- I considered this position more at large in an article in the " Westminster
