426 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION. 



fubde difcernment, an exquifite tafte, and an ab- 

 folute impartiality, to compofe fuch a work of 

 this kind as we have ftill to wifh for. 



XIV. In the laft place, particular literary hif- 

 tory inftructs us in the rational hiftory of the 

 feveral fciences , and this knowledge is indifpenf- 

 able to every man who applies to any particular 

 fcience with a defign to make it his profeflion. 

 The philofophers ought not, doubtlefs, to be ig- 

 norant of the hiftory of philofophy, or of the 

 different fyftems that have been invented in all 

 ages : the theologian ought certainly to be ac- 

 quainted with the various revolutions that have 

 happened in his fcience ; the lawyer would be 

 incefifantly liable to error, in the interpretation 

 and application of laws, without a thorough 

 knowledge of the hiftory of jurifprudence : the 

 phyfician ought likewife to know all the remark- 

 able events that have occurred in his art from the 

 days of Efculapius to the prefent time ; and fo 

 of the reft. Whoever fhall read with attention 

 this analyfis of Univerfal Erudition, will have an 

 idea fufficiently explicit of thofe arts and fciences 

 whofe hiftory he mould endeavour to know. 

 We have, moreover, in our progrefs marked the 

 principal epochs and revolutions. A work three 

 times as large as this would be icarce fufficient 

 to contain the outlines of the hiftory of all the 

 fciences. 



CHAP. 



