4. The sources of history may be ranged under sources of two general heads; oral traditions, and written documents of various kinds. The history of every nation usually commences with oral tradition, which remains the only source, until the art of writing becomes known, and in some degree adopted by the people.
mythology,
5. Under the name of traditional history or mythology, is comprehended all the general collection of oral traditions preserved by a nation; and some such traditional history or mythology is to be found among every people in the first stage of their existence as a community. This mythology, however, is by no means confined to events strictly historical, but embraces every branch of information which may appear to a nation in its infancy, of sufficient importance to be preserved and handed down to posterity.
Hence the mythology of a people is invariably composed of very heterogeneous materials; it not only preserves the remembrance of various kinds of historical facts, but likewise the pervading ideas of the people with respect to the nature and worship of their deities; as well as the notions they had formed from observations and experience respecting astronomy, morals, the arts, etc. All these are handed down in the form of historical narrative; because man, as yet unpractised in abstract thinking, necessarily represents every thing to his mind under the figure of some physical object. It is just as useless, therefore, to attempt to mould the mythology of any people into a consistent and connected whole, or indeed into any scientific system whatsoever, as it is difficult to draw a strict line between what belongs to mythology, and what to pure history. It follows, therefore, that mythology should be employed by the historian with great caution; and not without judicious criticism, and an accurate knowledge of antiquity.
These correct views of mythology,—the key to the whole of earlier antiquity,—were first set forth and illustrated by Heyne, in his commentaries upon Virgil and other poets, in his edition of Apollodorus, and in various essays published in the Transactions of the Gottingen Scientific Society. It is principally to the aid of these that the Germans owe their superiority over other nations in the science of antiquity.
poetry,
6. The place of writing among such nations, is generally supplied, in a great measure, by poetry; which being in its origin nothing more than imagery expressed in figurative language, must spontaneously arise among men, as yet wont to represent every thing to their minds under the form of images. Hence the subject matter of the poetry of every nation, while in a state of rudeness, is and can be nothing else but its mythology; and the great variety in the materials of which this is composed very naturally gave rise, at the same early period, to various kinds of poetry; as the lyric, the didactic, the epic. The last of these, inasmuch as it contains the historic songs and the epopee, claims in a more especial manner the attention of the historian.
The mythi (or fables of which this mythology was composed) were in later times frequently collected from the works of the poets, and committed to writing by grammarians; such as Apollodorus and others. This, however, can have had no effect on their original character.
written documents,
7. The second source of history, much more copious and important than the former, are the various kinds of written monuments. These may be arranged according to the order of time at which they were brought into use, into three classes; 1st. Inscriptions on public monuments, under which head are included the coins of later date; 2nd. Chronological records of events, under the form of annals and chronicles; 3rd. Real philosophical works on history.