ud the resolute abstinence with which Mr
Grote has refrained from seeking for some supposed historical basis in
mere legend and fable; we believe that his work, in this point of view,
is calculated to have an excellent influence, not only on all future
historians of Greece, but on all who shall undertake to write the early
history of any people whatever. With the exception of Dr Arnold's
History of Rome, we know of no work where there is the same true
appreciation shown of the real value, and proper use, of legendary
traditions. Certainly amongst the great scholars of Germany, whatever
their undoubted merits in other respects, there is very little of this
wise reticence, this philosophical forbearance; and if the two English
historians, whom we have named together, be surpassed in critical
knowledge by the learned men of Germany, or in brilliant narrative by
the writers of France, they are superior to their contemporaries in both
countries in the sound application of learning to ancient history, and
their attachment to the sobriety of truth. With much less show of
philosophic _system_, they have more of philosophy.

"The times which I have thus set apart," writes Mr Grote, in his
preface, "from the region of history, are discernible only through a
different atmosphere--that of epic poetry and legend. To confound
together these disparate matters is, in my judgment, essentially
unphilosophical. I describe the earlier times by themselves, as
conceived by the faith and feeling of the first Greek, and known only
through their legends,--without presuming to measure how much or how
little of historical matter these legends may contain. If the reader
blame me for not assisting him to determine this,--if he ask me why I do
not undraw the curtain and disclose the picture,--I reply in the words
of the painter Zeuxis, when the same question was addressed to him, on
exhibiting his master-piece of imitative art--'The curtain _is_ the
picture.' What we now read as poetry and legend was once accredited
history, and the only genuine history which the first Greeks could
conceive or relish of their past time: the curtain conceals nothing
behind, and cannot by any ingenuity be withdrawn. I undertake only to
show it as it stands,--not to efface, still less to repaint it."

A simple uninstructed age believes its own legend; it asks no question
upon the point of credibility; with such an age, to hear, is to believe.
Originally, indeed, with