CHAP. Xir. EARLY HISTORY FABULOUS. 207 



That the periods assigned for the duration of 

 these reigns are totally inadmissible, is evident; but 

 dates in the early history of many people are equally 

 vague and arbitrary, even where there is no reason 

 to doubt the truth of the events to which they are 

 affixed. 



In the history of ancient nations, the early por- 

 tion usually consists of mere fable, either from 

 real events having been clothed in an allegorical 

 garb, or from the substitution of purely fanciful 

 tales for facts, in consequence of the deficiency of 

 real data : to this succeeds an era when, as man- 

 ners and habits become settled, amidst fable and 

 allegory, some descriptions of actual events are in- 

 troduced ; and at length history, assuming the 

 exalted character that becomes it, is contented with 

 the simple narration of fact, and fable is totally dis- 

 carded. But such is the disposition in the human 

 mind to believe the miraculous, that, even at a 

 period when no one would dare to introduce a tale 

 of wonder unsupported by experience, credit still 

 continues to be attached to the traditions of early 

 history, as though the sanction of antiquity were 

 sufficient to entitle impossibilities to implicit belief. 

 A pure fable is credited, allegories are taken as 

 real events, and no one dares to withdraw the veil 

 which clothes substantial facts in an almost trans- 

 parent allegory j as few Romans in the Augustan 

 age would venture to doubt the miraculous kind- 

 ness of their founder's wolf, or the real existence 

 of the Egerian nymph. 



The religion of the Greeks bears tlie evidence 



