CHAPTEK IX 

 HISTORY 



BY History we mean an account of those successive 

 conditions and inter-relations of different nations, which 

 are based upon more or less trustworthy evidence. It 

 includes an account of religion, speculative opinions, 

 language, manners and customs, &c., as well as of 

 migrations, wars, political organisations and the suc- 

 cession of different dynasties. This vast mass of in- 

 formation cannot, it is obvious, be sketched, even most 

 briefly, in a single chapter least of all in a chapter of 

 such an elementary work as the present one. Various 

 branches of inquiry must be here passed over entirely in 

 silence, while others can be little more than hinted at, 

 though the elements of historical science must not be 

 altogether omitted. But the reader is referred to 

 special treatises on the history of different nations, on 

 philology, on manners and customs, on religion and on 

 philosophy, for all that he may desire further to know 

 on so extremely important a subject. 



There are some persons who will not be content with a 

 mere record, even a full one, of those conditions of man- 

 kind which are known to us through authentic records 

 (written or engraved on stone), but demand an account 

 of antecedent periods now commonly denoted by the 

 term " prehistoric." Others go further still, and require 

 a statement as to the probabilities respecting the origin 



