(3) As regards the _letters_ and _speeches_ which are ascribed by the Chronicler to various kings and prophets――e.g. David, Elijah, Azariah, etc.――these cannot be deemed authentic. For example, the great song of praise attributed to David in 1 Chronicles xvi. 7 ff. is wholly composed of quotations from Psalms of late date. Such speeches or letters are examples of a device constantly and legitimately employed by _ancient_ historians as a method of imparting vividness and spirit to their narrative. The letters and speeches represent simply what ought in the historian’s opinion to have been written or spoken. The Greek historian, Thucydides, carefully states the practice: “I have,” he writes, “put into the mouth of each speaker the sentiments proper to the occasion, expressed as I thought he would be likely to express them....” (Thucydides i. 22)¹. ¹ The practice is not peculiar to Chronicles, and these remarks are generally true of the correspondence between Solomon and Hiram and the long prayer of Solomon, found in 1 Kings v. 2‒9, viii. 22‒50, and transcribed (with some expansions) in 2 Chronicles ii. 3‒16, vi. 12‒42. (4) _National events_, such as _religious ceremonies_ (e.g. Hezekiah’s Passover, 2 Chronicles xxix.‒xxxi.) and _wars_ (e.g. 2 Chronicles xx. 1‒30) constitute as a rule the subject-matter of (5) the pious _midrashic passages_; so that (4) and (5) may conveniently be treated together. _Midrash_ is not serious history, and very probably was not intended to be regarded as such even by its author. It is earnest moral and religious teaching presented in a quasi-historical dress. In all these passages the _form_ of the tale is unhistorical, and all midrashic features, such as the incredibly and often impossibly large numbers given in Chronicles, must without hesitation be set aside; but it does not follow that the tale has no historical foundation whatever, that the events around which it was written were originally unreliable. In an ancient writing mythical features do not afford a proper ground for rejecting a tale as historically worthless――a fact which requires to be emphasised. An interesting example is found in the extraordinary legends which attached themselves to the life of Alexander the Great and rapidly spread throughout Europe and Asia (see _Encyclopedia Britannica_¹¹ vol. i. pp. 550 f.).