enrichment of what we have found by means of analysis and meditation and a confirmation or proof of our thoughts, which are not to be neglected, especially when true evidence and attested evidence agree with one another. To refuse the assistance and the facilities afforded by attested evidence, owing to the fear that some of it may prove false, or because all of it possesses an external and somewhat general and vague character, would be to refuse _the authority of the human race,_ and so to commit the sin of Descartes and of Malebranche. This great refusal does not concern or assist the understanding of history. All that does matter and does assist is that authority--including the authority of the human race--should never be allowed to take the place of the _thought of humanity,_ to which, in any case, belongs the first place. APPENDIX II ANALOGY AND ANOMALY OF SPECIAL HISTORIES In the course of the preceding theoretical explanations we have denied both the idea of a _universal history_ (in time and space)[1] and that of a _general history_ (of the spirit in its indiscriminate generality or unity),[2] and have insisted instead upon the opposite view with its two clauses: that history is always _particular_ and always _special,_ and that these two determinations constitute precisely concrete and effective _universality_ and concrete and effective _unity._ What has been declared impossible, then, does not represent in any way a loss, for it is on the one hand fictitious universality or the universality of _fancy,_ and on the other abstract _universality,_ or, if it be preferred, _confused_ universality. So-called universal histories have therefore shown themselves to be particular histories, which have assumed that title for purposes of literary notoriety, or as collections, views, and chroniclistical compilations of particular histories, or, finally, as romances. In like manner, general inclusive histories are either so only in name, or set different histories side by side, or they are metaphysical and metaphorical playthings.