Necessity of linguistic study--General knowledge of a language not enough--Particular variety of a language as used at a given time, in a given country, by a given author--The rule of context 146 Different degrees of difficulty in interpretation 149 Oblique senses: allegory, metaphor, &c.--How to detect them--Former tendency to find symbolism everywhere--Modern tendency to find allusion everywhere 151 Results of interpretation--Subjective inquiries 153 CHAPTER VII THE NEGATIVE INTERNAL CRITICISM OF THE GOOD FAITH AND ACCURACY OF AUTHORS Natural tendency to trust documents--Criticism originally due to contradictions--The rule of methodical doubt--Defective modes of criticism 155 Documents to be analysed, and the irreducible elements criticised separately 159 The "accent of sincerity"--No trust to be placed in impressions produced by the form of statements 161 Criticism examines the conditions affecting (1) the composition of the document as a whole; (2) the making of each particular statement--In both cases using a previously made list of possible reasons for distrust or confidence 162 Reasons for doubting good faith: (1) the author's interest; (2) the force of circumstances, official reports; (3) sympathy and antipathy; (4) vanity; (5) deference to public opinion; (6) literary distortion 166 Reasons for doubting accuracy: (1) the author a bad observer, hallucinations, illusions, prejudices; (2) the author not well situated for observing; (3) negligence and indifference; (4) fact not of nature to be directly observed 172 Cases where the author is not the original observer of the fact--Tradition, written and oral--Legend--Anecdotes--Anonymous statements 177 Special reasons without which anonymous statements are not to be accepted: (1) falsehood improbable because (_a_) the fact is opposed to interest or vanity of author, (_b_) the fact was generally known, (_c_) the fact was indifferent to the author; (2) error improbable because the fact was too big to mistake; (3) the fact seemed improbable or unintelligible to the author 185 How critical operations are shortened in practice 189 CHAPTER VIII THE DETERMINATION OF PARTICULAR FACTS The conceptions of authors, whether well or ill founded, are the subject-matter of certain studies--They necessarily contain elements of truth, which, under certain restrictions, may sometimes be inferred from them 191