122 EXAMINATION of an HISTORICAL HTPOTHESIS 



either, an error of tranfcription or typography ; or, if fuch fup- 

 pofition is excluded, interpolation or fabrication. 



V. In the fuppofition of interpolation or fabrication, there 

 muft of neceffity be included a cogent and adequate motive j 

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

 fition is not to be indulged. 



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

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

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

 dence. 



VII. Wher e a paffage is fufpecled of interpolation or fabrica- 

 tion, it is mod 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 flrong matter of corrobora- 

 tion. 



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

 jufi; criterion for the clecifion of all queftions of hiftorical con- 

 troverfy, where the evidence is of a compound, circumftantial 

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

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

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

 to examine. 



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 fubjecY of panegyric, both among his cotemporaries and 

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

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

 one of the lateft of thofe biographers, enumerates at leaft four- 

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

 profefledly written biographical accounts of this eminent man j 



not 



