360 nistorij, [Chap. XVIL 



the British public was that invented and delineated 

 by Dr. Priestley, with whose indefatigable labours 

 we meet in almost every department of literature 

 and science. The Lectures on History, by the 

 same gentleman, may be considered^ on the whole, 

 as one of tlie most able and useful works produced 

 by its author ; and, indeed, as among the best and 

 most satisfactory views of that subject which the 

 ^ge furnished. 



The eighteenth century not only gave birth to 

 many original productions of the historical kind, 

 but also to many valuable translations of the 

 works of ancient historians. This exhibition of 

 the well-constructed and elegant productions of 

 antiquity in ^lodern dress, while it deserves to be 

 mentioned among the literary enterprises which 

 distinguish the age under consideration, may also, 

 at the same time, be pronounced to have, exerted 

 ^ favourable influence on the character of modern 

 historical composition. 



It is impossible to dismiss this subject without 

 recollecting how much tlie researches of liistorlans, 

 in the eighteenth century, haye contributed to fur- 

 pish evidence in favour of Rcvelatron. There 

 never was a perjod in which Antiquities wtrt so ex- 

 tensively and successfully investigated ; and every 

 step of this investigation has served to illustiate 

 and support the Sacred V^olume. A f^^w superficial 

 inquirers, in the course of the century, supposed 

 ?iud hoped that t)iey had made discoveries frorp 

 the stores of auti({uity which would be found de- 

 structive of the in^^pired history. But these fond 

 hopes were soon disappointed. When the path of 

 inquiry opened by these sanguine discoverers was 



