Hardly a pure science, history is closer to animal husbandry than it is to
mathematics, in that it involves selective breeding. The principal difference
between the husbandryman and the historian is that the former breeds sheep
or cows or such, and the latter breeds (assumed) facts. The husbandryman uses
his skills to enrich the future; the historian uses his to enrich the past.
Both are usually up to their ankles in bullshit.
-- Tom Robbins