you, to be suspicious of interesting things, but, on the
other hand, every interesting incident is not necessarily untrue. If you
have made a conscientious search for historical material and use it with
scrupulous honesty, have no fear that you will transgress any reasonable
canon of historical writing.

An obvious question to be put to a historian is, What plan do you follow
in making notes of your reading? Langlois, an experienced teacher and
tried scholar, in his introduction to the "Study of History," condemns
the natural impulse to set them down in notebooks in the order in which
one's authorities are studied, and says, "Every one admits nowadays that
it is advisable to collect materials on separate cards or slips of
paper,"[42] arranging them by a systematic classification of subjects.
This is a case in point where writers will, I think, learn best from
their own experience. I have made my notes mainly in notebooks on the
plan which Langlois condemns, but by colored pencil-marks of emphasis
and summary, I keep before me the prominent facts which I wish to
combine; and I have found this, on the whole, better than the card
system. For I have aimed to study my authorities in a logical
succession. First I go over the period in some general history, if one
is to be had; then I read very carefully my original authorities in the
order of their estimated importance, making copious excerpts.
Afterwards I skim my second-hand materials. Now I maintain that it is
logical and natural to have the extracts before me in the order of my
study. When unusually careful and critical treatment has been required,
I have drawn off my memoranda from the notebooks to cards, classifying
them according to subjects. Such a method enables me to digest
thoroughly my materials, but in the main I find that a frequent
re-perusal of my notes answers fully as well and is an economy of time.

Carlyle, in answer to an inquiry regarding his own procedure, has gone
to the heart of the matter. "I go into the business," he said, "with all
the intelligence, patience, silence, and other gifts and virtues that I
have ... and on the whole try to keep the whole matter simmering in the
_living_ mind and memory rather than laid up in paper bundles or
otherwise laid up in the inert way. For this certainly turns out to be a
truth; only what you at last _have living_ in your own memory and heart
is worth putting down to be printed; this alone has much chance to ge