4 INTRODUCTION. 



• He who attempts to take a view, even the most 

 superficial, of human nature, and of human affairs, 

 within any given period, will soon find that the 

 ol)jcct w hich he undertakes to survey, is complex 

 and multiform. Man, always variable, and never 

 consistent, imparts this character to every thing 

 tliat he touches. To give the history of a single 

 mind for a single day; to mark with justice its 

 revolutions, its progress, its acquirements, and its 

 retrocessions ; to form an estimate of the good, or 

 of the evil, which, within this time, it may have 

 ]>roduced ; and to trace, in accurate lines, wherein 

 its character on that day differed from its character 

 on the preceding ; is a task which can appear easy 

 only to ignorance and inexperience. And in pro- 

 portion as the number of minds to be contemplated 

 increases, or the length of the time in question is 

 extended, the difficulties of the undertaking mul- 

 tiply, and it becomes, in every respect, more ar- . 

 duous. How numerous the difliculties, then, of 

 I'stimating the operations and the progress of the 

 Jiuman race for a hunclred years ! 



Another source of doubt and mistake also arises 

 here, beside that which is occasioned by the com- 

 plexness and confusion of the scene. Who can 

 distinguish between revoluiioii and improvement in 

 human affairs ? Who can undertake to say in what 

 cases they are synonymous terms, and when they 

 are directly opposite? If every change were to be 

 considered an advantage, it would follow, of course, 

 that the strides of civilised man, in every species 

 of improvement, during the last century, have been 

 j)rodigious. But, alas ! this principle cannot be 

 admitted by the cautious inquirer, or the friend of 



