The historian ought not to conclude that a fact is false because he possesses several versions of it, or because credulity has mixed with them much that is fabulous.

He ought in such a case to be very cautious--to examine the texts, and to proceed carefully by induction.

There is one class of narratives especially, to which this principle must necessarily be applied.

Such are narratives of supernatural events.

To seek to explain these, or to reduce them to legends, is not to mutilate facts in the name of theory; it is to make the observation of facts our groundwork.