The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 1895, Vol. 6 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, 1895, Vol. 6

We are equally loth to assume, with Driver, that the account has been insensibly modified and freedom used in putting lan guage into the mouths -of historical characters. For, first Of all, we regard this method as unscientific. Too much room is left for the play Of mere apriorisms. We cannot See how wholly just results are possible by it. Certainly they will have none Of the stringency or claim to universal acceptance that attaches to strictly logical reasoning. Does not Kuenen himself in substance acknowledge this when he says that the historical image which we frame by it is to no small extent, the result Of our own personality, and that here, where the documents cannot possibly be taken as they stand, the influence Of one's personal peculiarities reaches its maximum It is true, if certain critics are agreed upon a theory and proceed to adjust the record to it, every fact being made to fit into its place in the assumed historic connection, that a general consensus concerning it among these critics may no doubt be achieved. But the proba bility Of its being upset by the starting Of another theory is always imminent. Nothing is more common than a change in one's his torical or philosophical standpoint. That is all that would he need ful. It would be otherwise were the basis Of agreement Objective like the credibility Of a narrative.

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