XLV. With all the principles and causes hitherto pointed out, of error
in history, co-operates that of little reading. He who reads little,
frequently mistakes the doubtful for the certain, and sometimes the false
also. Generally speaking, in all the human theoretic faculties, much
study produces an effect different from that produced by mathematical
study. In this last science, the more a man studies, the more he knows;
in the others, the more he reads, the more he doubts. In the mathematics,
the study proceeds to remove doubts; in the others, it goes on to
increase them. For instance, he who studies philosophy only under one
master, all that master says, provided he is one of those who speak
positively and decidedly, he takes for granted. If he afterwards extends
his inquiries, and has recourse to others, although they should be of
the same school, the Aristotelic for example, he will begin to entertain
doubts, which will be occasioned by the nature of their disputes among
themselves; but he will still retain a firm assent to the principles
in which they are all agreed. If he afterwards reads with reflexion,
and free from all prejudice or pre-occupation, the works of authors of
other sects, he will begin to entertain doubts of even the principles
themselves.
XLVI. The same thing happens with respect to history. He who reads a
general history of the world, a kingdom, or a century, in one author
only, takes for granted all that is advanced by that author; and when, in
any future time, it occurs to him to speak or to write on the subject, he
asserts with confidence all he has read in that author. If, afterwards,
he applies himself to read books written by other authors on the same
subject, he will begin to entertain doubts of what he read in the first,
and the further he extends his reading, the more he will increase his
doubts; it being infallible, that the new contradictions which he will
ever find in authors, must beget in his mind a succession of fresh
doubts, till at last he will perceive many relations to be either false
or doubtful, which, in the beginning, he looked upon as absolutely
certain.
XLVII. In order to give a palpable demonstration of this truth, and to
point out some of the common errors of history, which is the principal
object I always have in view; I will introduce in this place, a
catalogue of many and various events of different ages; which already
in the general run of books, and the opinion of the vulgar, pass for
indisputable, and will, at the same time, state together with them, the
reasons for placing them in a doubtful point of view, or the evidence
which convicts them of falsehood.