Such is the partiality of mankind in favour of themselves and their
own actions, that it is extremely difficult, nay almost impossible
to come at any certainty, by reading the accounts that are written
on one side only. The simple truth is still perverted, as prejudice,
vanity, or interest warps the mind, and it is not discovered in all
its brilliancy, till the mists which obscure it are swept away by the
most rigid investigation. In what an odious light would our party men
place each other, if the transactions of the times were handed down
to posterity by a warm zealot on either side; and were such records
to survive a few centuries, with what perplexities and difficulties
would they embarrass the historian, as by turns he consulted them for
the character of his great forefathers. The same difficulties would
occur in writing the history of nations, both ancient and modern. Some
of those who flourish at this day, and consider themselves as having
reached perfection in civilization and polished manners, will perhaps,
not unjustly, be branded in after-times with cruelty, injustice,
and oppression, in having confounded all simplicity of manners, and
disturbed the peace of whole nations, by carrying the horrors of
war, of murder, and desolation, into regions formerly blessed with
uninterrupted tranquillity.
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