i88 7 ] KENAN S &quot; HISTOIRE D ISRAEL &quot; 609 



of Maccabees can fail to perceive that in the interval 

 enormous changes had taken place in the type of national 

 life and national religion. The problem which this obser 

 vation suggests has never been thoroughly worked out ; 

 but materials for its solution are not lacking, and the 

 Psalter in particular, of which a great part must be assigned 

 to the latter part of the Persian period and the first genera 

 tions of the Greek empire, supplies the basis for a research 

 not inferior in interest and importance to anything that 

 remains to be done for the earlier ages of the sacred history. 

 As regards this first volume, the author gives us fair 

 warning that we are to look not so much for a history as 

 for a half -imaginative reconstruction of the general 

 movement of society and religion in those dark ages that 

 preceded the historical period of Israel s life. In the 

 history of Israel there are, we are told, no certain material 

 facts before David ; the sources for everything prior to his 

 time resolve themselves into &quot; epical tradition.&quot; In such 

 stories it is vain to ask what happened ; our business is 

 to picture to ourselves the various ways in which things 

 may have happened. En pareil cas touie phrase doit Ure 

 accompagnee d un peut-tre. Or, again : Comme pour la 

 Vie de Jtsus,&quot; je reclame pour le present volume, consacrS 

 a des temps forts obscurs, un peu de I indulgence qu on a 

 coutume d accorder aux voyants, et dont les voyants ont 

 besoin. MZme, quand j aurais mal conjecture sur quelques 

 points, je suis sur d avoir bien compris dans son ensemble 

 I ceuvre unique que le Souffle de Dieu, c est-h-dire I dme du 

 monde, a realisee par Israel. These words sufficiently 

 characterise the difference between M. Kenan s method 

 and that of the critical historians of Germany and Holland. 

 It would be unfair to say that M. Kenan makes no 

 use of the critical analysis of Hebrew texts, or that a 

 writer like Wellhausen is devoid of historical imagination. 

 But in the German school the historical imagination is 

 held under control, and laborious analysis and evaluation 

 of the sources govern the whole construction of the history. 



39 



