Cicero's definition of history as “the lamp of truth” can be accepted only when the events of history are recorded accurately. The writer who travesties historical facts poisons the fountain of knowledge, misrepresents the ancients, misleads his contemporaries, and deceives future generations. Mindful of his responsibility the faithful historian is exact in his narrative, avoiding undue panegyric on the one hand, and on the other rash denunciation. He regards history as a science in which truth is dissociated from falsehood; an art by means of which past events are to be recorded so as to produce a present interest.