adapted to the reach of the meanest subject.

It is an irreparable loss, that our matchless author did not live to perform his promise, of favouring the world with a second part, or a compendious synopsis of modern history, upon the same plan with the ancient. In order to remedy, in some small degree, so great a misfortune, some pretty eminent pens abroad undertook the important design, and have actually brought it down to the year 1738. But instead of imitating our Orator's concise method, and Laconic style, they swelled their continuation to above thrice the size of the work they continued, though in a period not much exceeding one sixth part of the time. We have therefore been prevailed with, to make an humble attempt towards a more compendious execution of the useful, but arduous task continued down to the present times: wherein it will be endeavoured to follow, as near as possible, (though at an infinite distance, and with unequal steps) our author's style and manner, his

order as well as accuracy, his conciseness as well as perspicuity. We hope, at least, to omit few memorable facts that belong to our period, and to situate each event in its proper point of time. But there must

not be expected, in the second part, the same sublimity of thought and expression, the same happy turns and imperceptible transitions, the same lively and ingenious strokes, as in the first: for, besides that the nature of our subject and plan does not admit it, who can pretend to be a Bos

SUET.

AN

UNIVERSAL HISTORY.

TO THE DAUPHIN.

THOUGH History were of no use to other men, it The should be made the study of princes. There is no falde better means of discovering to them the power of sign of passions and interests, the importance of times and work. conjunctures, and the consequences of good and evil counsels. Histories are composed only of such actions as they are engaged in, and every thing in them seems calculated for their use. If experience is necessary towards their acquiring that prudence which teaches to reign well, there is nothing more useful for their instruction, than to join their own daily experience in the examples of past ages. Whereas they usually learn only at the hazard of their subjects, and of their own glory, to judge of the critical affairs that come before them; by the aid of history they form their judgment upon past events, without risking any thing. When they see even the most secret faults of princes, exposed to the view of all men, notwithstanding the false praises bestowed on them in their lifetime, they are ashamed of the vain delight which flattery occasions them, and convinced that true glory can only consist with merit.

Besides, it were shameful, not to say for a prince, but in general for any gentleman, to be unacquainted with mankind, and the memorable revolutions which the course of time has produced in the world. If

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we do not learn rom history to distinguish times, we shall represent men under the law of nature, or under the written law, such as they are under the evangelical; we shall confound the Persians conquered under Alexander, with the Persians victorious under Cyrus; we shall make Greece as free in the days of Philip, as in those of Themistocles, or Miltiades; the Roman people as bigh-spirited under the emperors, as under the consuls; the church as quiet under Dioclesian, as under Constantine; and France, torn with civil wars in the time of C arles IX. and Henry III. as powerful as in the time of Lewis XIV. when united under so great a monarch, she alone triumphs over all Europe.

It was, Sir, to avoid these inconveniences, that you have read so many ancient as well as modern histories. It was expedient, before all things, to make you read in scripture, the history of the people of God, which is the foundation of religion. You have not been left ignorant of the Grecian, nor of the Roman history; and what was to you of still greater importance, you have been carefully instructed in the history of that kingdom, which you are bound one day to render happy. But lest these histories, and those you have yet to learn, should confuse one another in your mind, there is nothing more necessary than to set before you in a distinct, but concise manner, the series of all ages.

This sort of universal history, is to the histories of each country and people, what a general map is to particular ones. In particular maps you see the whole detail of a kingdom, or province in itself; in general maps you learn to situate those parts of the world in their whole; you see what Paris, or the isle of France is in the kingdom, what the kingdom is in Europe, and what Europe is in the World.

Just so particular histories represent the series of events, that have happened to a people with all their respective circumstances in turn; but in order to understand the whole, we must know the relation each

history bears to others which is only to be effected by an abridgment, wherein we see, as it were with one glance, the whole order of time.

Such an abridgment, Sir, exhibits a noble spectacle to your view. You see all preceding ages unveil themselves, so to speak, in a few hours before you: you see how empires succeed one another, and how religion, in its various states, supports itself from the beginning of the world, down to our days.

It is the progress of these two particulars, I mean that of religion, and that of empires, that you ought to imprint upon your memory; and as religion and political government, are the two hinges, whereon all human things turn, to see whatever concerns those particulars summed up in an epitome, and by this means to discover the whole order and progression of them, is to comprise in thought all that is great among men, and to hold, so to say, the thread of all the affairs of the world.

As then in examining a general map, you leave the country where you are born, and the place that bounds you, to roam over the whole habitable earth which you grasp in thought, with all its seas and countries; so in considering a chronological epitome, you overleap the narrow bounds of your own time, and launch out into all ages.

But in like manner as to help the memory in the knowledge of places, we mark certain principal countries, around which we place others, each at its proper distance; so in the order of ages, we must have certain times distinguished by some great event, to which we may refer all the rest.

This is what is called an Epoch, from a Greek word which signifies to stop, because we stop there, as at a resting place, to consider all that happened before and after, and by this means to avoid anachronisms, or that sort of error which creates a confusion of times.

We must first confine ourselves to a few epochs,. such as are in the times of ancient history: those of