(no subject)

[crivelli]

AMONG the various conflicting modes of writing history, there would seem to be two grand practical distinctions, under which all the rest must subordinately range. By the one mode, all contemporaneous circumstances, facts, and events must be set down contemporaneously; by the other, they are only to be set down as the general stream of the narrative shall dictate; for matters which are kindred in time, may be very irrelative in themselves. I elect neither of these; I am careless of either; both are well enough in their way; I write precisely as I please.

<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34970/34970-h/34970-h.htm">Pierre; or The Ambiguities, by Herman Melville</a>