BIOGRAPHER, HISTORIAN, AND MAN OF LETTERS. 239 



counts of the doings of Adam and the patriarchs bio 

 graphical accounts. In what we are told of Abraham, 

 Isaac, and Jacob, we see biography dominant and history 

 unobtrusive. But with the transition from a nomadic to a 

 settled life, and the growth of a nation, the historical ele 

 ment comes to the front. Doubtless for a long time the 

 genealogies and the leading events were matters of common 

 traditional knowledge; though we may fairly assume that 

 the priest-class or cultured class were those who especially 

 preserved such knowledge. Later times give some evidence 

 of the connexion, as instance these sentences from Kuenen 

 and ^eubauer. 



&quot;In the eighth century B.C. the prophet of Jahveh has become a 

 writer.&quot; 



&quot;Upon their return from Babylon, Esdras, called the skilled scribe, 

 made disciples who were called sopherim, scribes, and whose busi 

 ness it was to multiply the copies of the Pentateuch and to interpret 

 it. Scribe and scholar in those days were synonymous.&quot; 



A few relevant facts are afforded by the ancient books of 

 India. Describing some of their contents Weber says: 



History &quot;can only fittingly be considered as a branch of poetry 

 . . . not merely on account of its form . . . but on account of its 

 subject-matter as well.&quot; 



Kalhana, who wrote a history of Kashmir, in 12th cent. A.D. was 

 &quot; more poet than historian.&quot; 



&quot;In some princely houses, family records, kept by the domestic 

 priests, appear to have been preserved.&quot; 



From ancient Egyptian inscriptions come various evi 

 dences of these relationships. How naturally the biograph- 

 ico-historical element of literature grows out of primitive 

 worship we see in the fact allied to a fact above named 

 concerning the Abyssinians, that in an Egyptian tomb 

 there was given in the ante-room an account of the occu 

 pant s life ; and, naturally, that which was done on a small 

 scale with the undistinguished man was done on a large scale 

 with the distinguished man. We read in Brugsch that 

 The royal gods of the Egyptians, who &quot;are referred to as kings,&quot; 



