EXPOSITION OF THE ARGUMENT. 7 



history and the letters, without any direct privity or com 

 munication with each other, derive their materials from the 

 same source ; and, by reason of their common original, fur- 

 nish instances of accordance and correspondency. This is a 

 situation in which we must allow it to be possible for an- 

 cient writings to be placed ; and it is a situation in which 

 it is more difficult to distinguish spurious from genuine writ- 

 ings, than in either of the cases described in the preceding 

 suppositions ; inasmuch as the congruities observable are so 

 far accidental, as that they are not produced by the imme- 

 diate transplanting of names and circumstances out of one 

 writing into the other. But although, with respect to each 

 other, the agreement in these writings be mediate and sec- 

 ondary, yet is it not properly or absolutely undesigned ; be- 

 cause with respect to the common original from which the 

 information of the writer proceeds, it is studied and facti- 

 tious. The case of which we treat must, as to the letters, 

 be a case of forgery : and when the writer who is personat- 

 ing another sits down to his composition — whether we have 

 the history with which we now compare the letters, or some 

 other record before him, or whether we have only loose tra- 

 dition and reports to go by — he must adapt his imposture, 

 as well as he can, to what he finds in these accounts ; and 

 his adaptations will be the result of counsel, scheme, and 

 industry : art mjist be employed ; and vestiges will appear 

 of management and design. Add to this, that, in most of 

 the following examples, the circumstances in which the co- 

 incidence is remarked are of too particular and domestic a 

 nature to have floated down upon the stream of general 

 tradition. 



Of the three cases which we have stated, the diflerence 

 between the first and the two others is, that in the first the 

 design may be fair and honest; in the others it must be ac 

 companied with the consciousness of fraud ; but in all there 

 is design. In examining, therefore, the agreement between 

 ancient writings, the character of truth and originality is 



