Essays, or discourses, vol. 3 (of 4)

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"Essays, or discourses, vol. 3 (of 4) : Selected from the works of Feyjoo, and…." by Feyjoo is a collection of essays written in the late 18th century. This volume turns a sharp, skeptical eye on how history is written, weighing style against substance and probing the biases that distort the record. He uses Quintus Curtius (as dismantled by Le Clerc) to illustrate how admired histories can be riddled with errors, then details the perils of style (affectation, false sublimity, uneven elevation), the difficulty of selecting essentials without confusion, and the constant tug‑of‑war between chronology and clear narrative. The core problem is truth: proximity to power, national and religious partisanship, hope and fear, personal grudges, and the temptation to embellish or to please the reader all warp accounts; forged chronicles and thin reading compound the damage.