$0 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



cipal of thefe divifions, that our readers may 

 not be quite ignorant of them, and fhall imme- 

 diately pafs to the analyfis of the real objects 

 of hiftory. 



CHAP. V. 



ANCIENT HISTORY. 



"tXT'E can write that only which we know, 

 and in all the hiftoric fciences, we can 

 learn that only which is written. From this in- 

 conteftable axiom we may draw fome inftructive 

 confequences. The firft is, that our ancient 

 hiftory cannot go higher than Adam, who is re- 

 prefented to us by Mofes (the mod ancient of 

 all thofe authors and hiftorians whofe works 

 have come down to us) as the origin of the hu- 

 man race. We know indeed, that in working 

 a quarry of porphyry they have lately found, 

 in the middle of a block of a prodigious fize, 

 a bar of wrought iron, and that according to 



the 



