122 EXAMINATION of a7i HISTORICAL HTPOTHESIS 



either an error of traiifcription or typography ; or, if fuch lup- 

 jiofition is excluded, interpolation or fabric nt'ion. 



V. In the fuppofition of interpolation or fabrication, there 

 niuft of necelTity be included a cogent and adequate motive ; 

 and therefore, where fuch motive is utterly wanting, the fuppo- 

 lition is not to be indulged. 



VI. Where this motive is apparent, the prefumption oifalfe- 

 bood is in proportion to the ftrength of the motive, the facility 

 of executing the deception, and the weight of the oppofing evi- 

 dence. 



VII. WiiER E a paffage is fufpe(5led of interpolation or fabrica- 

 tion, it is moll material to attend to the fenfe of the context^ or 

 what immediately precedes and follows the paffage in difpute ; 

 as its confonancy or difjonancy is ftrong matter of corrobora- 

 tion. 



If thefe rules of evidence are well founded, they will afford a 

 juft criterion for the decifion of all queftions of hiftorical con- 

 troverfy, where the evidence is of a coiTipound, circumftantial 

 and prefumptive nature ; and where our belief is the confe- 

 quencc not of authority but of argument. Of fuch a nature is 

 that hypothefis of the Abbe de Sade, which I ftiall now proceed 

 to examine. 



r 



The literary world owes very high obligations to Francis 

 Petrarch ; and it has been, laudably zealous in repaying them 

 by a grateful tribute of admiration and encomium. There is 

 no character among the moderns whofe talents have been more 

 the fubjec^b of panegyric, both among his cotemporai-ies and 

 with pollerity ; nor is there any whofe life has fo frequently 

 employed the pen of the biographer. The Baron de la Bastie, 

 one of the latefl of thofe biographers, enumerates at leafl four- 

 teen, and raofl of thefe authors of fome reputation, who have 

 profelfedly written biographical accounts of this eminent man ; 



not 



