PROLEGOMENA. CV. 



at its liistorical pretensions to antiquity and truth. 

 And thus have fallen to the ground all the proud 

 philosophers and infidel historians of the seven- 

 teenth century, just as the heretics of old fell 

 before them, refuted, discomforted, and confused, 

 floundering amidst the wrecks of their own sophis- 

 tries, and ready, from a deep sense of the chaos 

 into which they have fallen, to follow the glimmer- 

 ing corruscations of charity, which are breaking 

 out in different places to light all forlorn palmers, 

 through this dim valley of larmes, to the long 

 wished for object of their pilgrimage. If we love 

 to sing by the road, which Virgil tells us lessens 

 the ennui of the way, let it be in strains of hope 

 and not in ditties of despair ; in catholic madrigals 

 and not in heathen dirges ; of both of which the 

 pages of this book afford a specimen of the striking 

 contrast. For though the Circles of the Seasons 

 expand as we advance from youth to manhood, 

 and give to every year an enlarged compass of 

 delight and of curiosity ; yet they contract again, 

 like a spiral, with declining age ; and as the en- 

 croachments of decrepitude gradually obscure our 

 hemisphere, so they at last leave our mortal life 

 where it began, a mere point of contact between 

 mind and matter, which loosens at last and sets 

 free the soul loaded with the merits or guilt of the 

 whole of itsthoughts, words, and works, to go there- 

 with before God to be judged. In vain do we boast 



I'j, 



