There is the danger of ascribing to history a soul, a conscious will to a nation. Rather, they proceed by plunges, one day loyal to their friends, the next day treacherous even to themselves. The biographer must not let herself be tempted into drawing a straight line that leads to some neat historical or moralistic pole. With Sir Edward Coke it was the fluted ruffs, the silver armor, the Spanish galleons.
Bad theater can obscure the best of plots.
Dr. Johnson said that a historian will turn over an entire library for the sake of one book. To sit reading in a room surrounded by ten thousand volumes, shelved and looking down, can make an author truly queasy.