584 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



had his work, Hke theirs, been looser in texture, or less severely per- 

 fect, it would not have survived, as it has done, the wearing influence 

 of time, or remained, in its own language, the ktema es aei — the pos- 

 session for ever — it has proved to the world." 



But it may be asked, "Does the prevailing method apply to this 

 particular historian its erroneous attitude toward records and so 

 create doubt and uncertainty concerning events for which our informa- 

 tion rests upon him ?" Yes, and the application is made in an ex- 

 treme form. On pp. 148 and 229 of Professor Fling's Source Book 

 for the use of pupils in secondary schools, there will be found the follow- 

 ing questions upon extracts from Thucydides, I, 89-93, VI, 30-32, and 

 VII, 59-87: Where did Thucydides (died circa B.C. 400) get his in- 

 formation about the rebuilding of Athens (B.C. 479-478) ? Is it 

 valuable ? Was Thucydides an eye-witness of the Sicilian expedition 

 (B.C. 415-413) ? What is the value of his account compared with 

 his description of the plague at Athens (B.C. 430) ? The purpose 

 of these and similar questions is given in the preface of the book 

 (p. vi) as follows: "These questions upon evidence can sometimes be 

 answered by a study of the source extract, sometimes it is necessary 

 to make use of the information in the critical bibliography, and, finally, 

 sometimes they cannot be answered at all, or can be answered only by 

 way of conjecture. For instance, the question might be, 'Where did 

 Thucydides obtain his information about the Sicilian expedition ?' 

 Possibly the extract gives no information, and nothing is found in the 

 bibliographical notice that seems to cast any light on the problem. 

 It is clear that Thucydides was not in Sicily and could not have de- 

 scribed the events as an eye-witness, as he did in the case of the 

 plague. He must have learned of the events from others, either in the 

 Peloponnesus, or in Athens after his return from banishment. The 

 object of these questions is to impress the thought that this indirect 

 information is less valuable than the statements of a good eye-witness, 

 and that the less we know of the sources of information from which 

 a writer drew, the less confidence we have in his statements." 



The extracts from Thucydides himself and the bibliographical 

 notice tell nothing of the sources of his information for the rebuilding 

 of Athens or the Sicilian expedition. The above questions are a case 

 where the pupil can only conjecture; and in the strength of these conjec- 

 tures the pupil is invited to depreciate and cast doubt upon the state- 

 ments of Thucydides. This historian who is the embodiment of all the 

 virtuesof hiscallingand of all political wisdom and prescience as well can- 

 not be trusted to gather and give to us on the basis of his patient and 

 indefatigable research essentially correct information concerning an 

 Athenian expedition only 500 miles from the capital or an Athenian 



