ι founded on the original aâs which ,he has had in his hands, and his authority is unqueftionable.urge this example, becaufe it feems to me more proper than any other, to make a truth, important to our IJiftory, more ftrongly felt, a truth which has been fo much recommended by authors the molt thoroughly converfant with this ftudy : I mean, the abfolute neceffity of accompanying the perufal of hiftory, with a companion of the original a&s of the times. Some of them throw light upon parts which are defective, while others add to the t^limonies of hiftory a degree of authenticity of which they have but too much need : and it is from this comparifon, that the certainty of thefe truths refults as far as in their nature they are fufceptible of proof. I fhall referve what I may have to fay of thofe forty years for another opportunity, fince FroiiTart then wrote as a cotemporary hiftorian, and as an eye-witnefs, I may fay, of eveiy thing which was then paffing in the world. But I fhall firft examine the different judgments which have been paffed on this hiftorian, and particularly the almoft univerfal reproach jvhich has been made him, of being a yiolent partisan of the Engliih, and a declared enemy to the French. I ihall fpeak of his partiality in other refpeâs, his credulity in certaili articles, his exa&nefs μι others, and his mode of writing: I will then (enumerate the detail of the editions which we have pf his Hiftory, and difcufs the merits and faults of gach of them $ I fhall, more efpecially, examine whether