CHAPTER VII.
THE FIRST THREE VOLUMES OF THE DECLINE AND FALL.
The historian who is also an artist is exposed to a particular drawback from which his brethren in other fields are exempt.

The mere lapse of time destroys the value and even the fidelity of his pictures.

In other arts correct colouring and outline remain correct, and if they are combined with imaginative power, age rather enhances than diminishes their worth.

But the historian lives under another law.

His reproduction of a past age, however full and true it may appear to his contemporaries, appears less and less true to his successors.