gain if only those portions which remain obscure are more distinctly marked out for future research and illustration, should such be possible. As the linguist, from a few specimens of an ancient or modern dialect, settles its position in the great chart of the languages of the earth; as the naturalist, from a few distinct phenomena, forms a conclusion as to the whole, so too the historian must exercise the art of correctly arranging, and laying in their proper sequence, all the infinitely scattered and various traditions from remote antiquity, and then proceed to form further deductions from a few certain traces and testimonies, so as to piece together again the scattered and decayed members of the ruined whole into greater completeness and distinctness. To overlook and despise this history altogether, to avoid all questions or opinions. about it, is surely impossible; and in modern times every one is proud of any sort of investigation into the antiquity which has become so obscure to us now: why then should we not endeavour, one after another, boldly to conquer all the difficulties, and to recognise every truth as perfectly and as surely as is now possible?

There are especially two means which, properly applied, may happily complete the imperfect notices of many periods: the uniform use of all sorts of sources accessible to us, and the constant attention to all, even the most diverse, phenomena in the varying conditions of the people. As long as we use only the historical portions of the Old Testament, but lack the skill to employ the infinitely rich and (if judiciously used) extremely reliable and distinct prophetical and poetical portions, much must be utterly lost to the substance as well as to the elucidation of this history, which, if adroitly fitted into the other notices and indications, would often fill up perceptible gaps in a surprising manner. It may rather, indeed, be laid down as an axiom, that these sources, hitherto almost totally neglected, universally deserve the first rank; because they speak most directly the feelings of their age, and show us in the clearest mirror the genuine living traits of the events to which they allude. In fact, the historians of the Old Testament themselves acknowledge the high value of these sources, as they, like the Arabian annalists, frequently cite songs, and have adopted much from the prophetical books into their works. Moreover, so long as the historian devotes his chief attention to the conspicuous affairs of state and war, and neglects to investigate those branches of the activity and aspiration of the nation which flourish in modest obscurity, as well as all its

changing circumstances in their chronological succession, he will never comprehend the history in its full truth and importance. It is only when we draw into this circle, not only the history of the religion, literature, and arts of the people, but also all the most important parts of what is called archæology, and attempt, from all discoverable traces and testimonies, to discern the true life and character of each period, that we can hope to draw a not altogether unsatisfactory picture of this great and comprehensive history.

The series of these narratives cannot, indeed, be related as smoothly as a European history of the last few centuries. The various sources of this history are as yet too little estimated according to their respective value, for this; much also stands. too isolated in the wide circle to be unhesitatingly admitted, without an exposition of the reasons for a decided opinion about it: all of which chiefly applies to the older periods, which yet, in many respects, contain the sublimest and most peculiar elements of the history. Although there is much which, having been already sufficiently discussed elsewhere, I shall admit without further disquisition, and much which I shall notice as briefly as possible, nevertheless a large portion of this work will necessarily consist of a general and particular investigation into the sources. But such enquiries are most advantageously interwoven where an attempt is made, at the same time, to reconstruct a whole province of history by a correct valuation of the sources and to know the right reasons for fixing the events and epochs of remote histories, is to comprehend the histories themselves.

Further, there is no need, on the threshold of this work, to state at length that the true commencement of this history, which comes to its close with Christ, begins with Moses (although the mighty advance achieved in the time of Moses, which is the basis of all subsequent developments, presupposes the sojourn of Israel in Egypt as the first step in this direction); nor to show that this history passes through three great successive periods from its commencement, until its course is run, and its final close attained-externally indicated by the successive names of Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews, the people itself being a different one in each of these periods; nor, further, that what precedes the sojourn in Egypt, as being foreign to this domain, belongs to the preliminary history of the nation, and might be called its primitive history. All this could not now be briefly explained with sufficient clearness, but will distinctly appear in the course of the history itself.

SECTION II.

SOURCES OF THE EARLY HISTORY.

As Israel at length loses its separate national existence in that of other nations, and disappears as a people, so the facts of its later history are derived in increasing copiousness from the history of those foreign nations. This is not the place to enter beforehand into a general description of these sources of the late history, whether derived from heathen or other writers. The general valuation of these various sources, so far as they only occasionally concern our subject, belongs elsewhere; and their peculiar character, in so far as they give more precise views about Israel and its history, cannot be shown until we treat this later history itself. We shall then see how, when this gradual dissolution of Israel took place, the heathen came to think of it, and Israel of them. It is also to be remembered, that, on account of the greater proximity and abundance of these sources, the later passages of this history are much easier to understand than the earlier. It is the most ancient portions -the most important for the correct understanding of the whole-which are the obscurest: not only because the early stages of everything historical are to an ordinary eye dark in proportion as the original forces mysteriously working there are powerful, but also because the sources of information are there scantier and obscurer.

Nor can I here discuss what the monuments and writings of foreign nations offer incidentally for the elucidation of portions of the ancient history of Israel. Important and instructive as much of it is, it always concerns separate passages only of this history, and will therefore be best appreciated where these occur. It does not, indeed, belong to this place to substantiate correct notions about these foreign sources at all.

What the soil of the Holy Land displays on its present surface, has been examined with growing diligence, though by no means adequately, in modern times. But that which is buried in it, beneath the rubbish of thousands of years, and which is possibly of great value for history, is yet unexplored;

and cannot well be otherwise, so long as the great Christian States pursue their present various but equally mistaken policies towards Islam, and only foster the great injustice and unjust prejudices from which it sprang.

Prodigious and numerous relics of gigantic architecture and other handicrafts, such as we possess in the monuments of the Egyptians and of some other ancient nations, we shall look for in vain in the territory of Israel, either below or above ground; because this nation's external power and glory was never of long duration nor of any considerable extent, and, moreover, in course of time became rarer and rarer. Another characteristic feature of this nation is that the most important evidences of its history are not found engraved on the rocks, as in the case of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Persians.

The most important sources, therefore, which the people itself furnishes for its early history, are its written documents, and these are the most considerable that can be found for the history of any ancient people. It is only in cases in which something like a complete and varied literature of an ancient nation has been preserved, that we are able to attain a reliable and perfect knowledge of the depths of its intellectual life. The Bible, however, with its uncanonical appendages, preserves to us in small compass very various and important portions of such a literature; and thus affords for this history an abundance of wellsprings, with which no other equally ancient nation of high cultivation can vie. It could not, indeed, well have been otherwise, if the highest power that moved in the history of this people and made it immortal, was true religion itself; for this is a force which always acts on both literature and art, and can only easily perpetuate itself in such written monuments of eternal meaning. I have elsewhere shown how the prophetical and poetical parts of this literature are to be regarded, in an historical point of view; but the historical books, which supply almost the only materials for many periods, must here be submitted to a special enquiry, which must be exhaustive in itself, and the results of which will always be assumed throughout the sequel. These historical books, at the same time, most distinctly show us in what relation the ancient people stood to the art and appreciation of history generally; and on what level all historical composition originally commenced among them, and then continued to advance. Here therefore, before

In Die Propheten des Alten Bundes (Stuttgardt, 1840, 2 vols. 8vo.) and Die Poetischen Bücher des A. B. (Göttingen,

1835-39, 4 vols. 8vo.), some volumes of which have subsequently gone through a second and a third edition.-Transl.

we can trace even the rudiments of historical writing in Israel, we must set out from a consideration of the ultimate basis which it found preexistent-nay, which every historical writing, even now, really finds already there, before it begins its business. It is by the accurate discrimination of tradition and history, first of all, and then by the distinct appreciation of the relation which the historical books of the Old Testament bear to both, that we must gain the first step towards any sure treatment of a great portion of the history itself, as well as towards a just estimate of the historical books which have been preserved.

A. THE STORY AND ITS FOUNDATION. TRADITION.

One of the primary duties of every historical enquiry, and of every historical composition springing therefrom, is to distinguish the story from its foundation, or from that which has occasioned it, and thus to discover the truth of what actually occurred. Our ultimate aim is the knowledge of what really happened - not what was only related and handed down by tradition, but what was an actual fact. Such a fact, however, if it is anything really worthy of history, will always, however wonderful it may be, form a link in a larger chain of events, and-in its effects at least-leave unmistakeable traces behind it; and when all that surprises us, or appears at first sight impossible, can thus be known and proved from independent testimony, the doubts about it disappear, and it becomes in a strict sense an historical possession.

A momentous event is very independent of the story about it, which only arises as a faint counterpart, and propagates itself as a variable shadow of it-an image that we must do all we can to warm into life, if we wish to approach the event with a vivid sense of the reality. Even when we receive an account from an eyewitness, we must test it by itself, and by other stories about the same occurrence which may be in circulation, in order to obtain a correct representation: how much more necessary is it, then, to discriminate between the story and its foundation, when the narrative has passed through several hands or periods, or we find several discrepant accounts of the same event! At any rate, we of later times, who receive such various stories and from such distant ages and countries, cannot, for the sake of our main object-namely, instruction for our guidance in life from the light of history-elude a labour which dispels