336 SMALL VALUE OF TESTIMONY 



knowledge of any other kind. But it is only a 

 little way that that will carry us without assist- 

 ance. We must see the whole succession; and 

 the cases in which we have that opportunity are 

 few, while those for which a whole lifetime is too 

 short are very many. It is in those cases of 

 which we can personally observe only a part, that 

 the co-operation of society is of much value. We 

 have the record of the first, for that part of the 

 succession which happened before we were born, 

 and we have the intelligence of the present time 

 for that which takes place when we are not pre- 

 sent ; and thus, though we cannot, in these cases, 

 have so certain knowledge as we have of that 

 which falls under our own immediate observation, 

 we have it as well established as it can be by tes- 

 timony. 



Cases such as that of the entire destruction of 

 a whole tribe, or species, of organic beings, do 

 not come even within the scope of testimony ; for 

 history, being chiefly confined to the transactions 

 of men, and, generally speaking, even to a very 

 limited number of them, is silent with regard to 

 the others, even in those instances which from the 

 circumstantial evidence we would be led to con- 

 clude, had fallen within the period over which it 

 extends. In the instance above quoted, there is 

 every circumstantial proof that the castle was built 

 while the neighbouring ground was wood and 

 copse, and not peat-bog ; and the appearance of a 

 castle with hewn revetments and grouted walls, 

 bespeaks a degree of civilization higher than that 

 of any people altogether without a history. But 

 still there is not a single trace remaining ; and 

 that is at once a proof that those people neglected 



