ABSTRACT
Analysis and positive interpretative criticism only penetrate as far as the inward workings of the mind of the author of a document, and only help to know his ideas. They give no direct information about external facts. Reflection has been forced on historians in the course of their work by the circumstance of their finding documents which contradicted each other. In such cases they have been obliged to doubt, and, after examination, to admit the existence of error or mendacity; thus negative criticism has appeared as a practical necessity for the purpose of eliminating statements which are obviously false or erroneous. Literary distortion does not much affect archives; but it profoundly modifies all literary texts, including the narratives of historians. Oral tradition is by its nature a process of continual alteration; hence in the established sciences only written transmission is accepted.
