BRIEF RETROSPECT 



OF THE 



EIGHTEENTFI CENTURY, 



INTRODUCTION. 



JL HE oldest historian in the world, and th^ 

 only one in whose information and faithfulness we 

 can place unlimited confidence, tells us, that, in 

 the beginning, when God created the heavens 

 and the earth, he said'-^Z<?^ there be lights in the 

 firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the 

 night; and let them be for signs, and for seaso7is, 

 and for days, and for years. Without recurring to 

 the regular motions of these celestial orbs, time 

 would pass unnoticed and unmeasured. Its flio^ht, 

 in itself, is not an object of sense ^ we neither^ee 

 nor hear it. But by observing the diurnal revolur 

 tions of the heavenly bodies, we acquire the concep- 

 tion of days; by dividing these days, we form hours 

 and minutes; and, by multiplying them, we gain 

 the ideas of months, years, and ages. Like ail 

 the rest of the works and ways of God, these 

 means of marking the progress of time, and as- 

 certaining its portions, are adapted to promote 

 both physical and moral advantage. To the phi- 



