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We are therefore reduced to this dilemma :either Milton stated the falsehood, as above quoted, or Harris was guilty of a base fraud and literary forgery: but, as he was a man of respectable character, and as, moreover, his work, which is of modern date, has passed the ordeal of criticism in England, the latter supposition cannot be admitted. The only conclusion that follows, is, that the passage is fairly quoted by Harris; and that Milton, ashamed of the monstrous and extravagant legend, to which he had lent the sanction of his name, struck it out, after the second edition of his work. This recantation extenuates the crime, but by no means does away the original guilt of the criminal.

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VINDICIE HIBERNICE.

CHAPTER I.

"Uncertain, mistaken, false, and contradictory accounts have been given of the Irish Rebellion, by writers influenced by selfish views and party animosities."1

"Their enemies and competitors were indefatigable in endeavouring to load their whole party with the guilt of new conspiracies; (A) and even (B) manifest forgeries were received as solid proofs.”2

Historical writing. Its difficulties extreme. Discrepancies and falsehoods. Irish history more difficult, and more replete with fraud, than any other. President and Little Belt.

Of all the modes of employing the intellectual powers of man for the benefit of the great family to which he belongs, there is probably none superior, in its beneficial tendency, to history, properly executed. When thus executed, and judiciously studied, it is fraught with advantages of the most signal kind. Its operation in the moral, bears a strong analogy to that of the sun in the natural world. It sheds beneficent rays of light around, and dispels those mists of darkness which 2 Leland, IV. 131.

1 Carte, III. Preface.

bewilder the traveller, and obscure his path. It unerringly points out, to governments and people, the career of rectitude and of safety. The wisdom and folly of our ancestors, placed before our eyes, admonish us the course we ought to pursue, the conduct we ought to shun; and the most characteristic difference between a sound and a pettifogging statesman, is, that the warning voice of history has its due share of influence over the former, while it sounds in vain in the ears of the latter.

But when this species of writing is made subservient to the sinister purposes of a party or faction-when servile fear induces a writer to calculate his work to palliate their enormities, or to perpetuate their power-when wicked and profligate men, who ought to be held up to the execration of mankind, are pourtrayed as objects of esteem and veneration-when actions worthy of gibbets and guillotines, are blazoned forth as proofs of patriotism and public spirit-when fraud and falsehood guide the pen-or indolence bars the entrance into those stores, whence alone the truth can be derived, then the valuable purposes of history are perverted-the fountains of correct information corrupted and poisonedan undue bias is given to the public mind, as well as to that of individuals-other pernicious consequences are produced-and the guilty authors have a fair and indisputable claim to the most unqualified censure.

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