Introduction
and the events are possible. Let us believe they are, at any rate, if thereby we enrich imagination with a moment of romance; and let us be thankful to the barbarian that he has not reduced his life to the gray, unsoftened state of the oracle who, from his throne on the cracker-barrel in the corner grocery, proclaims against the wickedness of plays and novels because they are not true. As if moral truth and truth of character were not of more account than truth of fact! Religion, which has been a force for the moral lift of the race, is in all nations a traditionary, not a historical or scientific, inheritance, and so with half our laws and all our customs. Why all this to-do to prove that Pocahontas did not save John Smith? that William Tell never existed? He did exist, in the spirit of the Swiss; he exists to-day in every land of woods and mountains; and, blessings on him! he always will exist, though conventions of spectacled doubters pass resolutions advising him that he mustn't. Indeed, though we have seen interesting denials of William Tell, most of us as willingly believe in him at this moment as ever we did in our lives. The race clings to its legends. fondly. It will not discard them so long as they stand for truths of Nature and of human nature.
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