Hi bugbear,
The quotation comes from "Inaugural Lecture on the Study of History,"
from Lecturer on Modem History by John Edward Emerich Acton.
"...keep men and things apart; guard against the prestige of great
names; see that your judgments are your own, and do not shrink from
disagreement; no trusting without testing; be more severe to ideas
than to actions; do not overlook the strength of the bad cause or the
weakness of the good; never be surprised by the crumbling of an idol
or the disclosure of a skeleton; judge talent at its best and
character at its worst; suspect power more than vice, and study
problems in preference to periods; for instance: the derivation of
Luther, the scientific influence of Bacon, the predecessors of Adam
Smith, the medieval masters of' Rousseau, the consistency of Burke,
the identity of the first Whig."
THE ONLINE LIBRARY OF LIBERTY
http://oll.libertyfund.org/Texts/Acton0003/LecturesOnModernHistory/HTMLs/0028_Pt02_Inaugural.html
Also found here:
Modern History Sourcebook:
Lord Acton: Inaugural Lecture on the Study of History, 1906
"...judge talent at its best and character at its worst; suspect power
more than vice, and study problems in preference to periods..."
Source:
John Edward Emerich Acton, "Inaugural Lecture on the Study of
History," from Lecturer on Modem History ( 1906), pp. 15-16, 2,1-24,
26-28.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1906acton.html
Search criteria:
"judge talent at its best"
"Inaugural Lecture on the Study of History"
I hope this helps.
Best regards,
Rainbow |
