TO THE PUBLIC.

EXPERIENCE every day convinces us, that no part of learning affords fo much wifdom upon fuch eafy terms as Hiftory. Our advances in moft other studies are flow and difgufting, acquired with effort, and retained with difficulty; but in a well written hiftory every step we proceed only ferves to increase our ardour: we profit by the experience of others, without sharing their toils or misfortunes; and in this part of knowledge, in a more particular manner, study is but relaxation.

Of all hiftories however, that, which not confined to any particular reign or country, but which extends to the transactions of all mankind, is the most ufeful and entertaining. As in geography we can have no just idea of the fituation of one country without knowing that of others, fo in hiftory it is in fome measure neceffary to be acquainted with the whole, thoroughly to comprehend a part. A knowledge of univerfal hiftory is therefore highly useful, nor is it less entertaining. Tacitus complains, that the trafactions of a few reigns could not afford him a fufficient stock of materials to please or intereft the reader; but here that objection is entirely removed; an Hiftory of the World prefents the most striking events, with the greateft variety.

Thefe are a part of the many advantages which univerfal history has over all others, and which have encouraged fo many writers to attempt compiling works of this kind, among the antients as well as the moderns. Each invited by the manifeft utility of the defign; yet many of them failing through the great and unforeseen difficulties of the undertaking.

The

The barrennefs of events in the early periods of hiftory, and their fertility in modern times, equally ferving to increase their embarraffments. In recounting the tranfactions of remote antiquity, there is fuch a defect of materials, that the willingness of mankind to fupply the chafm, has given birth to falfhood and invited conjecture. The farther we look back into thofe diftant periods, all the objects feem to become more obfcure, or are totally loft, by a fort of perspective diminution. In this cafe, therefore, when the eye of truth could no longer difcern clearly, fancy undertook to form the picture; and fables were invented where truths were wanting. For this reason we have declined enlarging on fuch difquifitions, not for want of materials, which offered themselves at every step of our progrefs, but because we thought them not worth difcuffing. Neither have we encumbered the beginning of our work with the various opinions of the heathen philofophers concerning the creation, which may be found in most of our fyftems of theology, and belong more properly to the divine than the hiftorian. Senfible how liable we are to redundancy in this firft part of our defign, it has been our endeavour to unfold antient hiftory with all poffible concifenefs; and folicitous to improve the reader's ftock of knowledge, we have been indifferent as to the difplay of our own. We have not ftopt to difcufs or confute all the abfurd conjectures men of fpeculation have thrown in our way. We at firft had even determined not to deform the page of truth with the names of those, whofe labours had only been calculated to encumber it with fiction and vain fpeculation. However, we have thought proper, upon fecond thoughts, flightly to mention them and their opinions, quoting the author at the bottom of the page, fo that the reader who is curious about fuch particularities, may know where to have recourfe for fuller information.

As

As in the early part of hiftory a want of real facts hath induced many to fpin out the little that was known with conjecture, fo in the modern part the fuperfluity of trifling anecdotes was equally apt to intoduce confufion. In one case history has been rendered tedious from our want of knowing the truth, in the other from knowing too much of truth not worth our notice. Every year that is added to the age of the world, ferves to lengthen the thread of its hiftory; fo that to give this branch of learning a juft length in the circle of human purfuits, it is neceffary to abridge feveral of the leaft important facts. It is true, we often at prefent fee the annals of a fingle reign, or even the tranfactions of a fingle year, occupying folios: but can the writers of fuch tedious journals ever hope to reach pofterity, or do they think that our defcendants, whofe attention will naturally be turned to their own concerns, can exhauft fo much time in the examination of ours? A plan of general hiftory rendered too extenfive, deters us from a ftudy that is perhaps of all others the most useful, by rendering it too laborious; and inftead of alluring our curiofity, excites our despair. Writers are unpardonable who convert our amufement into labour, and diveft knowledge of one of its most pleasing allurements. The antients have reprefented History under the figure of a woman eafy, graceful, and inviting; but we have feen her in our days converted, like the virgin of Nabis, into an inftrument of torture.

How far we have retrenched these exceffes, and fteered between the oppofites of exuberance and abridgement, the judicious are left to determine. We here offer the public an Hiftory of Mankind from the earliest accounts of time to the prefent age, in twelve volumes, which, upon mature deliberation, appeared to us the proper mean. It has been

our

our endeavour to give every fact its full fcope; but at the fame time to retrench all difgufting fuperfluity, to give every object the due proportion it ought to maintain in the general picture of mankind, without crowding the canvas. We hope, therefore, that the reader will here fee the revolutions of empires without confufion, and trace arts and laws from one kingdom. to another, without lofing his intereft in the narrative of their other tranfactions. To attain these ends with greater.certainty of fuccefs, we have taken care in fome measure to banish that late, and we may add gothic practice of ufing a multiplicity of notes; a thing as much unknown to the antient hiftorians as it is difgufting in the moderns. Balzac fomewhere calls vain erudition the baggage of antiquity; might we in turn be permitted to make an apophthegm, we would call notes the baggage of a bad writer. It certainly argues a 'defect of method, or a want of perfpicuity, when an author is thus obliged to write notes upon his own works; and it may affuredly be faid, that whoever undertakes to write a comment upon himfelf, will for ever remain without a rival his own commentator. We have therefore lopped off fuch excrefcencies, though not to any degree of affectation; as fometimes an acknowledged blemish may be admitted into works offkill, either to cover a greater defect, or to take a nearer courfe to beauty. Having mentioned the danger of affectation, it may be proper to obferve, that as this of all defects is most apt to infinuate itself into fuch a work, we have therefore been upon our guard against it. Innovation in a performance of this nature fhould by no means be attempted: thofe names and fpellings which have been used in our language for time immemorial ought to continue unaltered; for, like ftates, they acquire a fort of jus diuturna poffeffionis, as the civi

lians exprefs it, however unjust their original claims might have been.

With refpect to chronology and geography, the one of which fixes actions to time, while the other affigns them to place, we have followed the moft approved methods among the moderns. All that was requifite in this, was to preferve one fyftem of each invariably, and permit fuch as chofe to adopt the plans of others, to rectify our deviations to their own ftandard. If actions and things are made to preserve their due diftances of time and place mutually with refpect to each other, it matters little as to the duration of them all with refpect to eternity, or their fituation with regard to the universe.

Thus much we have thought proper to premise concerning a work which, however executed, has coft much labour and great expence. Had we for our judges the unbiaffed and the judicious alone, few words would have ferved, or even filence would have been our beft addrefs: but when it is confidered that we have laboured for the public, that mifcellaneous being, at variance within itself, from the differing influence of pride, prejudice or incapacity; a public already fated with attempts of this nature, and in a manner unwilling to find out merit till forced upon its notice; we hope to be pardoned for thus endeavouring to fhew where it is prefumed we have had a fuperiority. An Hiftory of the World to the present time, at once fatisfactory and fuccinct, calculated rather for use than curiofity, to be read rather than confulted, feeking applaufe from the reader's feelings, not from his ignorance of learning, or af fectation of being thought learned; an History that may be purchased at an eafy expence, yet that omits nothing material, delivered in a ftile correct, yet familiar, was wanting in our language; and though fenfible of our own infufficiency, this defect we have attempted