Postscript of letter to Mandell Creighton (5 April 1887), puplished in Historical Essays and Studies, by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (1907), edited by John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence, Appendix, p. 505 http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2201&chapter=203934&layout=html&Itemid=27 <br class="br">Context: ADVICE TO PERSONS ABOUT TO WRITE HISTORY — DON’T<br>In the Moral Sciences Prejudice is Dishonesty.<br>A Historian has to fight against temptations special to his mode of life, temptations from Country, Class, Church, College, Party, Authority of talents, solicitation of friends.<br>The most respectable of these influences are the most dangerous.<br>The historian who neglects to root them out is exactly like a juror who votes according to his personal likes or dislikes.<br>In judging men and things Ethics go before Dogma, Politics or Nationality. The Ethics of History cannot be denominational.<br>Judge not according to the orthodox standard of a system religious, philosophical, political, but according as things promote, or fail to promote the delicacy, integrity, and authority of Conscience.<br>Put conscience above both system and success.<br>History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.