Poet and Historian
A Dialogue
By Walter Raleigh
Scene—An Academic Grove
Poet (who has been reading the "Midsummer Night's Dream"). Ill met by moonlight, proud Historian!
Historian. I admit that in venturing out in the moonshine I am poaching on your preserves—which you share, by the way, with the lover and the lunatic. But I am not of imagination all compact; I have lungs, and I came out to take the air. My History of Israel flags.
Poet. No wonder; the history of Israel is thoroughly tired of being written. I believe the first man who learned to scratch on wax with a bamboo style began to write a history of Israel. Suppose you were to vary the monotony by writing a Psalm of David. I do not understand what you are driving at. Do you hope to supersede the Bible?
Hist. Your ignorance appals me. As a collection of authorities and material the Bible cannot be superseded. As a connected and philosophical history its pretensions are slender indeed. The nature and meaning of events, the characters of men and women, are very imperfectly appreciated by contemporaries. I haverehabilitated
