Excerpt from History of the Lives of Abeillard and Heloisa, Vol. 1: Comprising a Period of Eighty-Four Years, From 1079 to 1163, With Their Genuine Letters, From the Collection of Amboise Little whether truth or fallhood preponderate. Nvhat really are the qualities to confiitute the bell hifiorian is hard to fay. To require that he lhould be of no country is requiring a thing impoflible; and to fay that he lhould have no religion, is a puerile demand The philofophical unbeliever is generally intolerant in his prae'tice and always prejudiced in. Hisiideas. The race has been tried as hifiorians without fuccefs. Till a man can be found without pallions and then he would. Be infipid' without prejudice, and then he would want interefi; without party and then. He would not be read we mull be fatisfied with fuch: hillorians as the common lot of humanity can fupply, and read their writings, with the fame indulgence, as we do a romance. If they' give us pleafure it will be well; and the moh; fanguine author feldom' looks for a better reward to his labors. I. Mean' not this as any apology for my own work; for I profefs to 'be as accurate as I' can and as truthful as the charaeler of my records will allow. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This 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.