Yet these dramas are
almost the only satisfactory expression of that historical faculty
which I believe is latent in us. The zeal of our factions, a result
of our national activity, has made earnest history dishonest: our
English justice has fled to indifferent and sceptical writers for
the impartiality which it sought in vain elsewhere. This resource
has failed,--the indifferentism of Hume could not secure him against
his Scotch prejudices, or against gross unfairness when anything
disagreeably positive and vehement came in his way. Moreover, a
practical people demand movement and life, not mere judging and
balancing. For a time there was a reaction in favour of party
history, but it could not last long; already we are glad to seek in
Ranke or Michelet that which seems denied us at home. Much, no
doubt, may be gained from such sources; but I am convinced that
_this_ is not the produce which we are meant generally to import;
for this we may trust to well-directed native industry. The time
is, I hope, at hand, when those who are most in earnest will feel
that therefore they are most bound to be just--when they will
confess the exceeding wickedness of the desire to distort or
suppress a fact, or misrepresent a character--when they will ask as
solemnly to be delivered from the temptation to this, as to any
crime which is punished by law.
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