[ cruikshank] presidential ADDRESS 13 



acquaintance with the facts in all their numerous details; familiarity 

 with the various sources of evidence; with the statements frequently 

 conflicting or contradictory, sometimes even irreconcilable, of many 

 w^itnesses, who have left their testimony as a legacy from the past. 

 The critical faculty becomes an instrument to assist the student in 

 the ascertainment and verification of the facts, and the appreciation 

 of their relative importance. It acts the part at once of the judge 

 and the jury at a trial in court; not only finding the facts but pro- 

 nouncing upon their significance. The diligence, the tireless patience 

 and labour, requisite for an exhaustive examination of the evidence, 

 take the place of the opposing counsel, whose business it is to elicit 

 the testimony of the witnesses on which the verdict is ultimately 

 rendered. 



Imagination, enthusiasm, emotion have their proper place. 

 After all history cannot be truthfully and adequately written wâth 

 the cold impartiality of a judge. These qualities may tend to 

 bias, but bias may be controlled and corrected by critical analysis 

 and just discrimination. 



Imagination and enthusiasm, combined with the requisite 

 facility and force of expression, can alone endow a narrative with life, 

 but in the ideal historian they must be united with the scientific 

 conscience, which regards the habit of accuracy, open-mindedness, 

 impartiality of judgment, and the love of truth for its own sake as 

 supreme virtues. 



