VII 



AGNOSTICISM 225 



and deserves full and candid consideration. It 

 may be said that critical scepticism carried to the 

 length suggested is historical pyrrhonism ; that if 

 we are altogether to discredit an ancient or a 

 modern historian, because he has assumed fabulous 

 matter to be true, it will be as well to give up 

 paying any attention to history. It may be said, 

 and with great justice, that Eginhard's " Life 

 of Charlemagne" is none the less trustworthy 

 because of the astounding revelation of credulity, 

 of lack of judgment, and even of respect for the 

 eighth commandment, which he has unconsciously 

 made in the " History of the Translation of the 

 Blessed Martyrs Marcellinus and Paul/' Or, to go 

 no further back than the last number of the 

 Nineteenth Century, surely that excellent lady, Miss 

 Strickland, is not to be refused all credence, because 

 of the myth about the second James's remains, 

 which she seems to have unconsciously invented. 



Of course this is perfectly true. I am afraid 

 there is no man alive whose witness could be 

 accepted, if the condition precedent were proof 

 that he had never invented and promulgated a 

 myth. In the minds of all of us there are little 

 places here and there, like the indistinguishable 

 spots on a rock which give foothold to moss or 

 stonecrop ; on which, if the germ of a myth fall, it 

 is certain to grow, without in the least degree 

 affecting our accuracy or truthfulness elsewhere. 

 Sir Walter Scott knew that he could not repeat a 



