text:  "This degree of accuracy was not accidental: he prepared himself for his work by a careful study of all the ancient documents calculated to throw light upon the period which he desired to recall--a conscientious correctness however which may be pushed too far; for the original work is disfigured by a great number of obsolete words and expressions as unintelligible to the modern Russian reader (unless he happened to be an antiquarian) as they would be to an Englishman