Page:Study of History.djvu/50

 in a different and adapted sense of the word, may be called the higher criticism, in comparison with the servile and often mechanical work of pursuing statements to their root. For a historian has to be treated as a witness, and not believed unless his sincerity is established.61 The maxim that a man must be presumed to be innocent until his guilt is proved, was not made for him.

For us then the estimate of authorities, the weighing of testimony, is more meritorious than the potential discovery of new matter. And modern history, which is the widest field of application, is not the best to learn our business in; for it is too wide, and the harvest has not been winnowed as in antiquity, and further on to the Crusades. It is better to examine what has been done for