f^340 py^^t/iTuMqr^l Injiapicc of History. 



species of knowledge, which can neither, much 

 improve , the understanding, better the, he^ft, 

 jior contribute to one valuable end, Perhaps I 

 am not wrong if. it he iny farther Opinion, that 

 to uncultivated and, unfeeling, readers of this 

 description, history may not only be, an un- 

 profitable, but in its epn&equenices an injurious 

 occupation. Some m^y dqem it onlya pleas- 

 ing illusion of the imagination, but I hold it as 

 a- truth, that the yirtue,< which constitutes at 

 , once the ornamept and felicity of man, has 

 most of the graces, in her train, and amongst 

 these, that modesty, which , declines a proud 

 shew to. the world, is a distinguished jand,-ii>r 

 separable attendant. It is therefore, that we 

 rarely meet with virtue in the splendid display 

 of history,,, whether in the court, or in the 

 camp, in the ^enate,;qr in the fQrum,;,or e^yen 

 in the jacademic grove, or, where §hfe might a^t 

 least be expected, at the tribunals of ;i^?^ecutiv^ 

 justice. Andit is therefore that the -vices of 

 niari . are thought \o preponderate over hi^ 

 virtues, bemuse jVistpry is littje other than a 

 record -pf his, follies,, -Jii^ ci^im^js and hfe misery ^ 

 Whether we take a retrospective view: of past 

 ages, or consult the present history of the 

 world, what have we generally presented to 

 our view, but one ^ disgusting series of the 

 Ji^ayiest calamities and the most sho^kipg 



