ciples, upon which they depend.

It opens the wideft profpect to the eyes of mankind in the fpacious fields of literature, and is one of the moft pleafing and important objects of study, to which the mind can be directed.

To draw the line of proper diftinction between authentic and fabulous hiftory, is the first object of the difcerning reader. Let him not burthen his memory with events that ought perhaps to pafs for fables; let him not fatigue his attention with the progrefs of empires, or the fucceffion of kings, which are thrown back into the moft remote ages. He will find that little dependence is to be placed upon the relations of thofe affairs in the Pagan world, which preceded the invention of letters, and were built upon mere oral tradition. Let him leave the dynasties of the Egyptian kings, the expeditions of Sefoftris, Bacchus, and Jafon, and the exploits of Hercules and Thefeus, for poets to embellish, or chronologifts to arrange. The fabulous accounts of these heroes of antiquity may remind him of the fandy defarts, lofty mountains, and frozen oceans, which are laid down in the maps of the ancient geographers, to conceal their ignorance of remote countries. Let him haften to firm ground, where he may fafely ftand, and behold the striking events, and memorable actions, which the light of authentic record difplays to his view. They alone are amply fufficient to enrich his memory, and to point out to him well attefted examples of all that

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is magnanimous, as well as all that is vile;-of all that debafes, and all that ennobles mankind.

Hiftory, confidered with refpect to the nature of its fubjects, may be divided into general and particular; and with refpect to time, into ancient and modern. Ancient hiftory commences with the creation of the world, and is by Boffuet, the learned author of an univerfal hiftory, extended to the reign of Charlemagne, Emperor of Germany and France, in the year of our Lord 800. Modern history beginning with that period reaches down to the present times. General hiftory relates to nations and public affairs, and may be fubdivided into facred, ecclefiaftical, and profane. Biography, or the account of the lives of eminent perfons, memoirs, and letters, conftitute particular hiftory. Geography and Chronology are important aids, and give order, regularity, and clearness to them all. Geography and Chronology are each derived from two Greek words. By the former is to be understood a description of the world as confifting of land and water; by the latter, the mode of computing time. Thefe will form the fubjects of a diftinct chapter.

For information upon the fubject of facred hiftory, the student muft refort to the holy Bible, as the highest authority, to the works of Jofephus, and the Annals of Archbishop Ufher, as they will furnish him with very useful illuftrations.

The

The affairs of the Chriftian Church, comprehending the lives, characters, and conduct of those who have maintained a pure and apoftolical faith, as well as of fuch fectarifts as have deviated from it, are comprised in Ecclefiaftical hiftory. It defcribes the nature of religious establishments, and difplays the various opinions of Chriftians upon the most important of all fubjects. This fubject has exercifed the diligence and difplayed the learning of many eminent writers of various ages; but the reader of general hiftory may find fufficient gratification for his curiofity in the works of Eufebius, and Mofheim.

From the people of the ancient world we first felect the Jews, as the particular objects of our attention. They were favoured with the knowledge of the one true God. Their hiftory carries us back to the most remote antiquity; and its importance is increased in the greateft degree by its connexion with the Chriftian Revelation.

The next branch of general hiftory is that of Antient Greece. It prefents a nation of heroes, philofophers, poets, orators, hiftorians, and artists, who spoke the nobleft language which ever graced the tongue of man, and who have been the guides and the inftructors of all fucceeding nations in arts, fciences, and philofophy. Greece was the fource of light, that has irradiated a great portion of the globe.

The

The Romans in the order of excellence, as well as of time, followed the Grecians: their military talents were difplayed in a long fucceffion of conquefts and triumphs in every part of the ancient world. The monuments of their genius, which the ravages of time have fpared, render them next to the Greeks the boaft of hiftory, and the glory of mankind.

The Hiftory of England, has the strongest claims to our attention. It abounds with fuch events and tranfactions, and difplays fuch characters and actions, as it is our duty and our interest to study; and we are attracted to a perufal of its eventful records by the ties of patriotifm, and a congeniality of manners.

From Modern history in general we select thofe parts which relate to the most important tranfactions and events, particularly adverting to thofe difcoveries and inftitutions, which diftinguish it from ancient times, and have contributed effentially to the prefent ftate of opinions and manners.

There are certain foreign nations, which, by the extent of their dominions, their civil polity, or their connexion with our own country, may excite our curiofity to learn their former ftate: but it will not answer any important purpose to dwell, for inftance, upon the affairs of France under the Merovingian, or Carlovingian families; or upon the state of Germany before the reign of Charles V.

Let

not

not the scholar wafte too much time, which may be more profitably employed in other ftudies, in poring over the works of Thuanus, Mariana, and Froiffart; or the numerous volumes of the Univerfal Hiftory.

With refpect indeed to foreign nations, the objects of his moft ufeful attention are the actual power, the nature of their prefant governments, the ftate of civilization, fciences, and arts, their natural and artificial advantages, their population, produce, commerce, and relative importance in the fcale of political greatnefs. This conftitutes a branch of ftudy, which has been of late years much cultivated by the Germans, and is diftinguished by the name of Statistics. Travellers and statesmen muft not claim this ftudy as their own exclufive province, fince it will be found extremely ufeful to every English gentleman, and will qualify him to form a juft eftimate of the relative condition, power, and importance of his own country.

Biography is a branch of hiftory, which is placed high in point of importance and moral utility. Biographers by their accurate refearches fupply the deficiences of the hiftorian. What the latter gives us only in outlines and fketches, the former prefent in more complete and highly finithed portraits. Their province does not merely extend to thofe who have acted upon the great theatre of the world, as fovereigns, ftatefmen, and warriors; but to all who have improved human life

by