532 MEMOIR OF 



feature Mr Tytler saw that a principle of natural arrangement 

 was afforded him, which might give to his course a sufficient 

 degree of unity and order ; and which, while it preserved to 

 the student the interest of historical narration, gave to the 

 teacher the opportunity of exhibiting those general views of 

 the progress of the human race, which form the most import- 

 ant instruction we can derive from its history. 



It was on this principle that his course of Ancient History 

 was conducted. After some general prospects of what is known 

 of the Assyrian and Egyptian Empires, he began with the bril- 

 liant and interesting subject of Greece. He treated at length, 

 the events of its civil and political history, and in conduct- 

 ing his narrative, brought occasionally into view the situation 

 of the nations by which it was surrounded. He then exami- 

 ned the nature of the various governments which distinguish- 

 ed it, — the different political institutions which they had adopt- 

 ed, — the character of their military establishments, — their 

 principles of colonization, and of internal regulation : And 

 when time had conducted him to the melancholy period of the 

 extinction of their independence, he took a retrospective view 

 of its literary history, — of the state of its attainments in arts 

 and science, and, above all, of the nature and causes of that 

 unequalled excellence which it attained in all the arts of 

 taste. 



The next great subject which presented itself was the his- 

 tory of Rome : and in the views he took of this magnificent 

 portion of his course, he followed the same arrangement, and 

 employed the same method of instruction. After recounting 

 its obscure origin and infant institutions, — after tracing the 

 progress of its political constitution, until it terminated in that 

 illustrious Republic, which, though so long extinct, still reigns, 

 as by some magic spell, over the minds and imaginations of 



mankind, 



