INTRODUCTION TO A NEW HISTORY OF THE WORLD; INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED IN TWELVE VOLUMES, OCTAVO, BY J. NEWBERY, 1764. FIRST PRIEST. RECITATIVE. No more! when slaves thus insolent presume, To yonder gloomy dungeon turn your eyes ; See where he mourns his friends and children slain. More ponderous chains, and dungeons more confined. earn s his ✓ and diffi oceed expe unes; anner, ined to › to the 1 entera of the f others; o be ac nd a part. hly useful, is, that the him a suffist the reader; d; a History of events, with the TO THE PUBLIC. EXPERIENCE every day convinces us, that no part of learning affords so much wisdom upon such easy terms as history. Our advances in most other studies are slow and disgusting, acquired with effort, and retained with difficulty; but in a well-written history, every step we proceed only serves 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 histories, however, that which is not confined to any particular reign or country, but which extends to the transactions of all mankind, is the most useful and entertaining. As in geography we can have no just idea of the situation of one country, without knowing that of others; so in history it is in some measure necessary to be acquainted with the whole thoroughly to comprehend a part. A knowledge of universal history is therefore highly useful, nor is it less entertaining. Tacitus complains, that the transactions of a few reigns could not afford him a sufficient stock of materials to please or interest the reader; but here that objection is entirely removed; a History of the World presents the most striking events, with the greatest variety. VOL. II. 24 |