236 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



of others in war and the chase. Though they have surround 

 ing Nature and its changes, sometimes striking, to describe 

 and comment upon, yet even these are usually of interest 

 only as affecting men and influencing their lives. Human 

 actions are the perennially interesting things; and obvi 

 ously, among human actions, those certain to be most dis 

 cussed are those which diverge most from the ordinary the 

 victories of the courageous man, the feats of the strong man, 

 the manoeuvres of the cunning man. Thus in the first stages, 

 merely from lack of other exciting matter, there goes, after 

 the narratives of individual successes in the day s hunt or 

 the day s fight, a frequent return to the always-interesting 

 account of the great chief s exploits, his ordinary doings, 

 his strong sayings. Gradually the description and lauda 

 tion of his achievements grow into a more or less coherent 

 narrative of his life s incidents an incipient biography. 

 As a reason, too, why biography of this simple kind becomes 

 an early mental product, let us note that it is the simplest 

 the easiest both to speaker and hearer. To tell of deeds and 

 dangers and escapes requires the smallest intellectual power; 

 and the things told are, fully or partially, comprehensible 

 by the lowest intelligence. Every child proves this. The 

 frequent request for a story shows at once the innate liking 

 for accounts of adventures, and the small tax on the mind 

 involved by conceptions of adventures. And it needs but 

 to note how the village crone, mentally feeble as she may 

 be, is nevertheless full of tales about the squire and his 

 family, to see that mere narrative biography (I do not speak 

 of analytical biography) requires no appreciable effort of 

 thought, and for this second reason early takes shape. 



Of course, as above said, biography of a coherent kind, 

 arising among peoples who have evolved permanent chiefs 

 and kings, grows gradually out of accounts of those special 

 incidents in their lives which the priest-poets celebrate. Let 

 us gather together a few facts illustrative of this develop 

 ment. 



