SOURCE: "The Historian and His Appropriate Subject Matter," in Sir Walter Ralegh as Historian: An Analysis of "The History of the World, " Institut für Englische Sprache, 1974, pp. 43-76.

In the following excerpt from his book-length study of Raleigh's History, Racin elucidates Raleigh's concept of truth in historiography and his understanding of his role as a historian.

The historian's raison d'être for Ralegh was the search for truth. We see in the History his laborious efforts to establish the historicity of the past, a task which required a carefully wrought synthesis of authority, reason, conjecture, and personal experience. For Ralegh only the Scriptures were beyond doubt, but all other evidence must be tested by "nature," "reason," and "time." Even the early Church Fathers were not exempt from close scrutiny and criticism. In his study of the possible physical sites of Paradise, he noted: "And it is true...