204 SIR W. M. EAMSAY^ ON EXPLOEATION OF ASIA MINOE^ AS BEARING 



but for use on raore perishable material like paper, or skins, or 

 parchment ; and therefore ink-written pottery implies the use of 

 those more perishable materials. But Egypt is the only country 

 which is dry enough to preserve such materials ; and there alone 

 is ancient wTitten paper found ; but the wider use of ink fur- 

 nishes the proof that similar perishable materials were used in 

 other countries besides Egypt. 



Mere literary arguments could furnish no revolutionary dis- 

 covery like this : one can advance only by very short steps with 

 that class of arguments ; no great step can ever be taken safely 

 on purely literary reasoning. And by the purely verbal reason- 

 ing wdiich has been fashionable in the latter part of the nine- 

 teenth century, no real progress can be made. Verbal arguments 

 may afford valuable suggestions, but they must be treated as 

 mere hints and sign-posts, and they must be tested by other 

 kinds of reasoning or by discovery before any trust can be 

 placed in them. 



The purely verbal scholars make much parade of their readi- 

 ness to accept each new discovery as it is made ; and for their 

 readiness they deserve all praise. The criticism which one has 

 to make on them is twofold. In the first place, they very 

 quickly forget that any discovery was ever made. They cease to 

 remember the last stage of literary and verbal reasoning as soon 

 as the new basis is attained. In the second place, they are as 

 perfectly confident in the new style of reasoning as they were 

 in the old ; and at the next epoch-making discovery they will 

 toss aside their present basis of reasoning and adapt themselves 

 with admirable versatility and absolute confidence to the new 

 conditions ; and at each stage they give no sign that their 

 former views and methods were quite diflerent, and that they 

 are indebted to the discoverer of the actual ancient objects for 

 the progress that they are making. 



Xow I will ask your attention to another example. When 

 the careful and thorough exploration of Asia Minor began in 

 recent times, it is safe to say that the book of the Acts of the 

 Apostles was the most suspected and discredited book in the 

 Xew Testament. Many even of the most conservative scholars 

 had tacitly abandoned it to its fate : no one, so far as I know, 

 among the leading scholars of any school or tone of thought, 

 ventured to say a word in its favour. The many scholars who 

 were hostile to the historical credibility of the New Testament 

 considered the question with regard to the Acts as closed. No 

 person who valued his reputation among scholars dared to re- 

 open it, for the belief was unchallenged that no one who 



