74 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



nion. When they made Cadmus fow the earth 

 with teeth, from whence men fprung up, it was 

 necefiary that thefe firft of human race mould 

 immediately attack and butcher each other. 



Barbarians ! to whom no object appears great 

 but that of war ! The nurture of the human race, 

 their eftabliihrnents, their migrations, the found-' 

 ing of cities and colonies, the progrefs of the hu- 

 man mind in the arts and fciences, grand inven- 

 tions and difcoveries, as that of navigation and 

 a new world, and a thoufand like objects ; Are 

 rot thefe worthy of regard ? A king came to the 

 crown on fuch a day, in fuch a year: without the 

 kail reafon he attacked fuch a people, and after 

 that fo many others j or he was himfelf attacked; 

 and fuch were the confequences of his wars, he 

 overthrew fo many cities, he took fo many pri- 

 loners, and left fo many dead upon the field ; 

 and at laft this mighty monarch himfelf is killed, 

 or he dies with remorfe in his bed. You have 

 here, in a few words, the fubflance of hiftory 

 in general ; fome little ornaments of moral and 

 political reQections apart. 



VI. The fecond fault of hiftorians is, the bad 

 proportions they obferve in the arrangement of 

 their works. Each hiftory, whether univerfal 

 cr particular, refembles a peacock, who, to a 

 very fmall head, and a body indifferently large, 

 has joined an enormous tail, which continually 

 extends as it approaches the extremity. The 



beft 



