All those literary compositions were historic tales; and they
were not composed for mere amusement, but possessed in the eyes
of learned men a real authority in point of fact. If fancy was
permitted to adorn them, the facts themselves were to remain
unaltered with their chief circumstances. Hence the writers of the
various annals of Ireland do not scruple to quote many poems or
other tales as authority for the facts of history which they relate.

And such also was heroic poetry among the Greeks. The Hellenic
philosophers, historians, and geographers of later times always
quoted Homer and Hesiod as authorities for the facts they related
in their scientific works. The whole first book of the geography
of Strabo, one of the most statistical and positive works of
antiquity, has for its object the vindication of the geography
of Homer, whom Strabo seems to have considered as a reliable
authority on almost every possible subject.

Our limits forbid us to speak more in detail of Celtic historians
and poets. We have said enough to show that both had important
state duties to perform in the social system of the country, and,
while keeping within due bounds, they were esteemed by all as men
of great weight and use to the nation. Besides the field of genealogy
and history allotted to them to cultivate, their very office tended
to promote the love of virtue, and to check immorality and vice.
They were careful to watch over the acts and inclinations of their
princes and chieftains, seldom failing to brand them with infamy
if guilty of crimes, or crown them with honor when they had deserved
well of the nation. In ancient Egypt the priests judged the kings
after their demise; in Celtic countries they dared to tell them