The History of the Heavens

Sketch of this Work,

knowledge, were able to communicate to one another, and immortalize down to our own time.

Yet, however cautiously a historian original: "Historie Schryver" may proceed, taking care to utilize nothing but that which bears the marks of truth, it often happens that the subject matter he treats contains such notorious fictions—accepted as truth—that he finds himself compelled to recount them at length, in order to refute them piece by piece. For example, most of our French historians have begun by making us view the Gauls as a people who were conquered and dominated by the Franks; from which (a) some-

(a) History of France by the Count of Boulainvilliers. Henri de Boulainvilliers (1658–1722) was a French nobleman and historian known for his theory that the French aristocracy descended from the victorious Franks, while the commoners descended from the conquered Gauls.