I.] TESTS OF MARVELLOUS NARRATIVES. I/
foreign lands; and by these they were impelled towards the
further prosecution of such researches, and the attempt to de-
termine their bearing on other studies,
Since the sources of information about distant lands in an-
tiquity were so various, and in some respects so
uncertain, it required, and still requires, the exercise
of considerable judgement to determine the amount P°rts °f Earfy
... , . ... Travellers.
of credibility that attaches to the evidence which
was thus obtained. No doubt, the suspicion with which "travellers'
tales " have been received in all ages is in many ways unreasonable,
for truth is stranger than fiction, and those who have seen un-
wonted sights in far countries, however much they maybe tempted
to exaggerate by the impossibility of putting their statements to the
proof, have less need than others to draw on their imagination.
At the same time there is a marked difference between the obser-
vations of professed explorers and those of traders, or of soldiers
who have returned from foreign campaigns; and it was almost
entirely from these and similar classes of men that intelligence
was obtained in ancient times. To determine the value of such
statements a certain exercise of criticism is required, so as to
distinguish what has been gathered by hearsay from that which
is the result of personal enquiry; and the character of the narrator
himself, and the circumstances under which his information was
procured, have also to be taken into account. It is the privilege
of a later age, when additional facts bearing on these points have
been brought to light, to be able to pronounce with greater con-
fidence on the trustworthiness of such testimony. . By this means
fully as much has been done in the way of confirming, as in
that of disallowing, the traditions of a past age. Thus it is easy
to understand that the statements- of Pytheas with regard to the
wonders of the northern sea, and even his voyage to
that region, would appear incredible, when they
were subjected to the criticism of an unimaginative
thinker, like Polybius, who declined to believe any-
thing that he could not verify or explain; and yet we may acknow-
ledge that, since that time, confidence in that traveller has been
restored by a comparison of his narrative with the results of modern
enquiry. We shall have to return to this subject at a later time,
T.