see the most secret vices of princes exposed to the view of all mankind, notwithstanding the false praises bestowed on them in their life-time, they feel ashamed of the vain delight which flattery gives them, and are convinced that true glory can only con

sist with merit.

Moreover, it would be shameful, not merely for a prince, but for any gentleman, to be unacquainted with mankind, and witli those memorable changes which the course of time has produced in the world. If we do not learn from history to distinguish times, we shall represent men under the law of nature, or under the written law, such as they are under the law of the Gospel. We shall speak of the Persians who were conquered under Alexander, as of the Persians who were victorious under Cyrus; we shall represent Greece as equally free in the days of Philip, and in those of Themistocles, or Miltiades; the Roman people as high-spirited under the emperors, as under the consuls; the church as tranquil under Dioclesian, as under Constantine: and France, when torn with civil wars in the time of Charles IX. and Henry III. to be as powerful as in the time of Lewis XIV. when, united under so great a monarch, she triumphs alone over the whole of Europe.

It was, Sir, to avoid these inconveniencies, that you have read so many ancient and modern histories. It was, above all, necessary to make you read in scripture the history of the people of God, which is the foundation of religion. You have not been left igno

rant 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 to render happy. But lest these histories, and those you have yet to learn, should be confused 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 plan 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 the situation of those parts in the world as a 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 in all their detail; but in order to understand the whole, we must know the relation each history bears to the rest: which can only be done by an abridgment, in which 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 unfold themselves, so to speak, in a few hours before you: you see how one empire succeeds another, and how religion, in its various states, supports itself equally from the beginning of the world to our own days.

It is the progress of these two things, 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 points on which all human affairs revolve, to see whatever concerns those points summed up in an epitome, and by this mean to discover the whole order and progression of them, is to comprize 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 quit the narrow bounds of your own time, and reach forth into all ages.

But as, to help the memory in the knowledge of places, we mark certain principal cities, 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 Adam, or the creation; Noah, or the deluge; the calling of Abraham, or the beginning of God's covenant with men; Moses, or the written law; the taking of Troy; Solomon, or the foundation of the temple; Romulus, or the building of Rome; Cyrus, or the deliverance of the people of God from the Babylonish captivity; Scipio, or the conquest of Carthage; the birth of Jesus Christ; Constantine, or the peace of the church; Charlemagne, or the establishment of the new empire.

I give you this establishment of the new empire under Charlemagne, as the end of ancient history, because there you will see the ancient Roman empire totally at an end. It is for this reason I shall detain you at so considerable a period of universal history. The continuation of it shall be laid before you in a second part, which will bring you down to the age we see adorned by the immortal actions of your royal father, and which, from the ardor you show to follow so great an example, has reason to expect additional lustre.

Having thus explained to you in general the design of this work, I have three things to do in order to make its usefulness answer my expectation.

I must first run over with you the epochs which I have enumerated, and by pointing out to you, in few words, the principal events, which ought to be annexed to each of them, accustom your mind to arrange

those events in their places, without regard to any thing but the order of time. But as my principal intention is to make you observe in this progression of times, that of religion, and that of great empires; after carrying on together, according to the course of years, the facts which regard those topics, I shall resume in particular, with the necessary reflections, first, those which set forth to us the perpetual duration of religion; and, lastly, those which discover to us the causes of the great revolutions, that have befallen empires.

Then, whatever part of ancient history you read, all will turn out to your advantage. No fact will pass, of which you do. not perceive the consequences. You will: admire the train of God's counsels in the concerns of religion; you will likewise see the concatenation of human affairs, and. will thus be made sensible, with what reflection and foresight they ought to be governed.