Note 18 — INTRODUCTION.

The author has explained his views as to the authorities for this period of the history more anxiously, because he does not at all sympathise with Mr. Burton in his view of the authority of Tacitus as an historian, and the character of his narrative. The author is unable to see how the credibility of his narrative is impaired by the fact that his Life of Agricola was not included in the first edition of his works, and was unknown to our historians before Hector Boece. Mr. Burton hardly ventures to question the authenticity of the Life of Agricola. The view he appears to hold, that it was written more as a political manifesto than as a plain historical relation of facts, has been hastily adopted from a school of German critics, whose views have not, however, met with acceptance from the sounder class of them. The author holds the authenticity of the Life of Agricola to be unquestionable, and that its fidelity as a narrative cannot be reasonably assailed; and he considers any argument drawn from the presence or absence of local tradition as to the events it records to be irrelevant, as all genuine tradition of this kind in Scotland has perished under the influence of the immense popularity and general acceptance at the time of Hector Boece’s fabulous history, which has, in fact, created a spurious local tradition all over Scotland.