There are some fundamental divergencies in the representations of the traditions of both David and Saul (qq.v.), and there is indirect and 1 Cf.
Here, too, the occurrence of repetitions and divergencies, the variations of standpoint and practice, and, at times, the linguistic peculiarities point no less clearly to diversity of origin.
Moreover, even in the passages where the agreement with Polybius is most apparent, there are so many discrepancies and divergencies in detail, and so many unaccountable omissions and additions, as to render it inconceivable that he had the text of Polybius before him.
And he finds all the conceptions by which men have hoped to reconcile admitted antagonisms and divergencies between moral ideals claiming to be ultimate and authoritative alike unsatisfactory (p. 285).
In comparing the Irish tales with the saga, there will be felt deep divergencies in matter, style and taste, the richness of one contrasting with the chastened simplicity of the other; the one's half-comic, half-earnest bombast is wholly unlike the other's grim humour; the marvellous, so unearthly in the one, is almost credible in the other; but in both are the keen grasp of character, the biting phrase, the love of action and the delight in blood which almost assumes the garb of a religious passion.
