280 THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. really a loss to English and even to universal litera- ture that Knox's hasty and strangely interesting, im- pressive and peculiar Book, called the History of the Reformation in Scotland^ has not been rendered far more extensively legible to serious mankind at large than is hitherto the case. There is in it, when you do get mastery of the chaotic details and adherences, perpetually distracting your attention from the main current of the "Work, and are able to read that, and leave the mountains of annotation victoriously cut off, a really singular degree of clearness, sharp just insight and perspi- cacity, now and then of picturesqueness and visuality, as if the thing were set before your eyes ; and every- where a feeling of the most perfect credibility and veracity : that is to say altogether, of Knox's high qualities as an observer and narrator. His account of every event he was present in is that of a well- discerning eye-witness. Things he did not himself see, but had reasonable cause and abundant means to enquire into, — ^battles even and sieges are described with something of a Homeric vigour and simplicity. This man, you can discern, has seized the essential
