The Eclectic Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Vol. 1

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Excerpt from The Eclectic Museum of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Vol. 1: January to April, 1843We cannot better illustrate the fulness and authenticity of Mr. Alison's history, than by quoting his own statement of the admirable plan on which he has selected and applied his authorities. His invariable rule, we are informed by his Preface, has been 'to give, on every occasion, the nu thorities by volume and page from which the statement in the text was taken. Not only are the authorities for every par agraph invariably given, but in many in stances also those for every sentence have been accumulated in the margin. Care has been taken to quote a preponder ance of authority, in every instance where it was possible, from writers on the oppo site side to that which an English historian may be supposed to adopt and the reader will find almost every fact in the internal history of the Revolution, supported by two Republican and one Royalist authority an every event in the military narrative drawn from at least two writers on the part of the French, and one on that of their op ponents.' We feel convinced that Mr. Ali son has acted up to the spirit of this candid and judicious system throughout his whole work. We cannot, of course, pretend to have verified his statements by constant reference to the writers from whom he has drawn his information. The events which he records are of such recent occurrence, and such deep interest, that the enormous mass of details published respecting them may well defy the curiosity of an ordi nary reader. But we are bound to remark, that whenever we have been led to com pare the con¿icting accounts of any impor tant event in Mr. Alison's history, we have almost invariably found that his narrative steers judiciously between them, and com bines the most probable and consistent par ticulars contained in each. We apply this remark more especially to his narration of the intestine commotions of the French Revolution, and of the military con¿icts of the Empire - particularly those which oc curred in Spain. No one, we think, can read the various accounts of the troubles which led to the Reign of Terror, as col lected in the able work of Professor Smyth.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.