was first put forward conjecturally by Reuss in lectures, but
not published, in 1833-34 ; it was first systematically argued
by Graf, at one time a pupil of Reuss, in 1866, and it was
substantially demonstrated by Wellhausen in 1878. In
April, 1828, Ranke wrote his brother Henry: "The dis-
covery of the unknown history of the world would be my
greatest good fortune ; I believe also that you can and will
contribute your share to it. In regard to the most ancient
phases of the world's history — the unique evidence for
which I believe the Bible is — the most incredible confusion
of ideas prevails. When were the Mosaic books written?
Did the constitution which they depict ever exist; if so,
when? Numberless other questions are not yet answered
satisfactorily." ^
Ranke here put his finger on the crucial point of the whole matter and set the exact problem which was to be solved fifty years later. ^ It is hardly too much to say that, in all probability, if Ranke had devoted himself to Hebrew history, taking up the questions he suggested, the work of Graf and Wellhausen would have been done forty or fifty years earlier, and that the Biblical discussions of our own day would have taken place in the time of our fathers and grandfathers.
As a writer Ranke possessed a rare power of discerning in his material the typical. He draws in broad outline and then fills in with apt details. T he truth of the pictu re vitally depends upon the discrimination a nd honest y with which the choice of "details is made. Leo attacked his method in 1828, and Ranke justified it in the following words, which set forth his principles of composition: "I have made the attempt to represent the general through the particular, directly and without tedious multiplicity of de- tail. In this I have not imitated Johann von Muller or any
1 Pages 195, 196.
2 Yet, with characteristic singleness of aim and devotion to his main purpose, Ranke gave the problem no further attention, as it lay outside his field. Appar- ently he never even familiarized himself with its solution. The section on the History of Israel in the Weltgeschichte might just as well have been written in 1825 for all the influence it shows of modern Biblical criticism.
