[BowMan] FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES IN HISTORICAL SCIENCE 153 
proven.! In an aggregation of individual results, or statements— 
such as the record or portion necessarily is—formulated by an 
accredited operator of correct processes (7.e., processes that, rightly 
followed, lead necessarily to correct results), all that could possibly 
be proved to the contrary would be inadvertent, incidental errors 
by the operator. A disproof of the record or portion as a whole or 
in essentials would be impossible; therefore, according to the 4th 
fundamental principle, such record or portion must be accepted as 
correct save in those points, if any, where incidental error is proven, 
i.e., as essentially correct or essentially trustworthy. 
On the foregoing two grounds, the one based on the example and 
practice found in actual intercourse and experience and the other on 
a fundamental principle of science, the correctness of the Ist appli- 
cative principle is established as a necessary conclusion. The fact 
that the exemplification of the five requisites for trustworthiness in 
the statements of a record accredits the writer of the record as an 
operator who is applying the corresponding five correct processes for 
formulating trustworthy written statements is established by the fact 
that in actual intercourse the exemplification of these requisites in the 
verbal statements of an individual accredits him as an operator who 
is applying the corresponding correct processes for formulating trust- 
worthy verbal statements. With respect to the requisites for trust- 
worthiness, indeed, the individuality of a man is of necessity disclosed 
by his utterances, whether verbal or written, but especially by the 
written. So long as a man says nothing, nothing can be known about 
his exemplification of the five requisites, but if he speaks, he reveals 
‘apidly whether he thinks intelligently and states a matter clearly, 
whether he is seriously trying to inform, whether he is impartial, 
whether he is well poised and whether he includes, in statements 
spontaneously made for the information of others, conclusions which 
he himself admits are necessary, 1.e., only probable. In written state- 
ments this revelation, which is inseparable even from verbal utterances, 
is still more complete; for the writer, by the additional care and exer- 
tion involved in the written statements, stamps his individuality more 

1 When examining such an essentially trustworthy record, the person examining 
may be wholly unacquainted with the matter to which the record relates (and there- 
fore not in a position to judge of the matter otherwise than by the record), or partly 
acquainted, or wholly acquainted with the matter. According to the 4th fundamental 
principle, the person, in so far as he is unacquainted with the matter, is 
required as a reasonable man to accept the record’s statements as correct; in so far 
as he has, or obtains, acquaintance with the matter, he is permitted to reject any 
point in the record that he can disprove. The remainder he is required as a reason- 
able man to accept. 
