Excerpt from The Ecclesiastical History of M. L'abbe Fleury, From the Second Ecumenical Council to the End of the Fourth Century: Translated With Notes, and an Essay on the Miracles of the Period A fact is properly called improbable, only when it has some quality or circumstance attached to it which Operates to the disadvantage of evidence adduced in its behalf. We can scarcely avoid forming an opinion for or against any statement which meets us we feel well disposed towards some accounts or reports, averse from others, sometimes on no reason whatever beyond our accidental frame of mind at the moment, sometimes because the facts averred flatter or thwart our wishes, coincide or interfere with the View of things familiar to us, please or startle our imagination, or on other grounds equally vague and untrustworthy. Such an ticipations about facts are as little blameable as the fancies which spontaneously rise in the mind about a person's stature and appearance before seeing him: and, like such fancies, they are dissipated at once when the real state of the case is in any way ascertained. They are simply notional; and form no presumption in reason, for or against the facts to which they relate. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.