Here's another gem, from this letter of 16 December 1816, on how prominent historians and their biases had skewed people's understanding –
"History has only increased the Tories and diminished the Whigs. That History has been the Bane of G.B. It has destroyed many of the best Effects of the Revolution of 1688. Style has governed the Empire.
Swift, Pope and Hume have disgraced all the honest Historians. Rapin and Burnet Oldmixen and Coke, contain more honest Truth than Hume and Clarendon and all their disciples and Imitators. But Who reads any of them at this day?
Every one of the fine Arts from the earliest times has been inlisted in the Service of Superstition and Despotism. The whole World at this day Gazes with Astonishment at the grossest Fictions because they have been immortalised by the most exquisite Artists."
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