An invention is never, in reality, to be attributed to a single
author. It is the result of the work of many collaborators who
sometimes have no acquaintance with one another, and is often the
fruit of obscure labours. Public opinion, however, wilfully simple in
face of a sensational discovery, insists that the historian should
also act as judge; and it is the historian's task to disentangle the
truth in the midst of the contest, and to declare infallibly to whom
the acknowledgments of mankind should be paid. He must, in his
capacity as skilled expert, expose piracies, detect the most carefully
hidden plagiarisms, and discuss the delicate question of priority;
while he must not be deluded by those who do not fear to announce, in
bold accents, that they have solved problems of which they find the
solution imminent, and who, the day after its final elucidation by
third parties, proclaim themselves its true discoverers. He must rise
above a partiality which deems itself excusable because it proceeds
from national pride; and, finally, he must seek with patience for what
has gone before.
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