[BowMaAN] FUNDAMENTAL PROCESSES IN HISTORICAL SCIENCE 155 
ii. WHERE A RECORD OR ANY PORTION OF IT IS ACCEPTED AS 
ESSENTIALLY TRUSTWORTHY BECAUSE THE RECORD AS A WHOLE 
OR IN SUCH PORTION EXEMPLIFIES THE REQUISITES FOR 
TRUSTWORTHINESS, NO STATEMENT IN IT OR IN SUCH PORTION 
SHOULD BE STAMPED AS ERRONEOUS SAVE FOR A NECESSARY 
CAUSE SHOWN. 
This principle depends on the following two tests, either of which 
should be conclusive :— 
1. In the experimental test described in Section III it is 
shown that in actual intercourse, where an individual exemplifies 
in his statements the requisites for trustworthiness, the persons 
to whom such an individual makes a statement or statements feel it 
necessary to accept such statements as correct save in those points, 
if any, in which they of their own knowledge know, when the 
statement is made, that the maker of the statement is in error, or 
in those points, if any, in which subsequent developments show 
that the maker of the statement has been in error. Personal 
knowledge of the contrary on the part of the hearers, or proof of 
the contrary—the only reasons for which the statements of such an 
individual are rejected by the hearers as incorrect—are both 
necessary and evident causes for such rejection: therefore, in 
actual intercourse, no statement of an individual exemplifying the 
requisites for trustworthiness is rejected as incorrect, 7.¢., is stamped 
as erroneous, save for a necessary cause shown; and accordingly, 
if a record or any portion of it is accepted as essentially trust- 
worthy because, as a whole or in such portion, it exemplifies in 
its statements the requisites for trustworthiness, the example and 
practice found in actual intercourse and experience require that 
no statement in such record or portion shall be rejected as incorrect, 
i.e., be stamped as erroneous, save for a necessary cause shown. 
2. According to the 1st fundamental principle of science 
only necessary conclusions dare be accepted. In harmony with this 
principle, where a record or any portion of it is accepted as essen- 
tially trustworthy because the record as a whole or in such portion 
exemplifies in its statements the requisites for trustworthiness, 
this acceptance, as set forth in the argument of the Ist applicative 
principle, is for necessary reasons, viz.:—The exemplification of the 
five requisites in such record or portion accredits the writer of the 
record or portion as an operator who is applying the corresponding 
five correct processes for formulating trustworthy statements, and 
therefore, according to the 4th fundamental principle of science, the 
record or portion must be accepted as essentially correct or 
