THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

182 The Harmony of Virtuemodern India has not produced the parallel, was a man of ripescholarship, literary powers of the very first order and a strongcritical sagacity. In his Life of Krishna (Krishnacharitra) he dealsincidentally with the Mahabharata problem, he perceived clearlyenough that there were different recognizable styles in the poemand he divided it into three layers, the original epic by a verygreat poet, a redaction of the original epic by a poet not quite sogreat and a mass of additions by very inferior hands. But beingconcerned with the Mahabharata only so far as it covered theLife of Krishna, he did not follow up this line of scrutiny andrelied rather on internal evidence of a quite different kind. Hesaw that in certain parts of the poem Krishna's godhead is eithernot presupposed at all or only slightly affirmed, while in othersit is the main objective of the writer; certain parts again give usa plain, unvarnished and straightforward biography and history,others are a mass of wonders and legends, often irrelevant extravagances;in some parts also the conception of the chief charactersis radically departed from and defaced. He therefore tookthese differences as his standard and accepted only those partsas genuine which gave a plain and consistent account of Krishnathe man and of others in their relation to him. Though hisconclusions are to a great extent justifiable, his a priori methodled him to exaggerate them, to enforce them too rigidly withoutthe proper flexibility and scrupulous hesitation and to resort occasionallyto special pleading. His book is illuminating and fullof insight, and the chief contentions will, I believe, stand permanently;but some parts of his argument are exaggerated andmisleading and others, which are in the main correct, are yetinsufficiently supported by reasoning. It is the failure to refereverything to the ultimate test of style that is responsible for theseimperfections. Undoubtedly inconsistencies of detail and treatmentare of immense importance. If we find gross inconsistenciesof character, if a man is represented in one place as stainlesslyjust, unselfish and truthful and in another as a base andselfish liar or a brave man suddenly becomes guilty of incomprehensiblecowardice, we are justified in supposing two handsat work; otherwise we must either adduce very strong poetic andpsychological justification for the lapse or else suppose that the poet