NOTES AND QUERIESUNIVERSITY
frequently tinged with a protestant ardour to
assert the writer's personal disinclination to
regard Savage as anything but an impostor.
I had presented a portrait, but had given
no reasons for my own disinclination to
regard it as anything but the portrait of the
man. The question, How much of this is
pure biography? how much fiction ?
is bound to couple itself with a healthy
interest in my book; and as none but myself
can answer the question in such a way as to
smooth the paths of conjecture, I address
the following observations to all those whom
the inquiry concerns.
True historical research yields little, how-
ever, in the case of Richard Savage; and
whoever interests himself keenly in his
history is constrained in the long run either
to shroud himself in a silence impenetrable
as the kernel of his inquiry, or, hazarding
speech, upon the high seas of conjecture, to
be borne now and again into a region where
the historical landmarks are out of sight.
He is not bound on this account either to
misrepresent their whereabouts or wilfully
to mutilate their dim outline.