PHASES OF HISTORY. 
365 
PHASES OF HISTORY. 
ABSTRACT OF MR. R. N. WORTH'S PAPER. 
(Read November 21st, 1872.) 
Premising that he did not intend to allude, except incidentally , to 
any historical fact, but that his object was to consider some of the 
phases through which what they called history had passed, Mr. 
Worth said that at bottom the various branches of his subject re- 
solved themselves into two — recorded history and unrecorded. By 
this he did not mean written and unwritten. Unrecorded history 
was generally regarded as rather the material of history than 
history itself. Yet here and there an interpreter arose to whom 
its language was familiar, and in truth it was but a difference in 
language after all. Whatsoever perpetuated the memory of the 
past was really history, by whatever name it might be called. 
Thus, from the creation downwards, every age was included in its 
domain, and little tinkling rills of tradition flowed towards man 
from a period so remote that national life was but a thing of 
yesterday in comparison, whilst their primal sources were for ever 
removed from human ken. History was a record chiefly of the 
dealings of man with man. It treated of man's outer life, and 
concerned itself with nature only so far as nature was connected 
with action. 
Recorded history commenced everywhere with the marvellous. 
The facts were not seen face to face, but through the distorting 
media of uncultured minds. The distant and the obscure were 
always wonderful, and from the childhood of the individual they 
learnt to understand the childhood of the race. In both they saw 
a strong faith combined with a weak judgment. All that was 
beyond his faculties the savage attributed to powers superior to 
himself. All the causes with which he was acquainted were 
personal; to persons therefore he ascribed those causes which he 
only knew by their results. The bearing of this upon traditional 
and legendary history was obvious. Moreover, men in all ages 
were prone to exalt their belongings and surroundings ; and one 
of the most universal beliefs of the world was the belief in the 
