ii 



MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 



and national happiness and improvement. For seldom, 

 in the distractions which accompany the rise of kingdoms 

 and enlargement of empires, do national happiness and 

 prosperity, in at least their most proper acceptation, keep 

 pace with those external indications of greatness and dis- 

 tinction, which in the annals of the historian make so 

 imposing an appearance. We must turn rather to more 

 peaceful eras, when the campaigns and triumphs of the 

 warrior have been followed by repose — or when, after a 

 period of successive distractions and internal convulsions, 

 a nation has begun to concentrate its energies and acquire 

 solidity and strength — if we wish to contemplate the 

 proper results of all this previous national contention — ^the 

 establishment, namely, and progress of the arts of peace, 

 from which alone human improvement and happiness can 

 proceed. But while the truth of this statement will be 

 generally admitted, especially in a country such as this, 

 which has so long been exempted from the ravages of 

 foreign invasion, or the still more melancholy and dis- 

 astrous exhibition of civil strife, the general reader, who 

 has perused with keen relish and interest the more stirring 

 and brilliant records of other historical periods, will 

 naturally — more especially the younger student — feel the 

 want of that stimulant which before at once whetted and 

 gratified his curiosity and attention. His eye probably 

 runs over many a dry page, filled with the records of his 

 country's quiet but sensible improvement ; and, unless he 

 be distinguished by a more than ordinary thoughtful and 

 reflective character, he will find some difiiculty in keeping 

 up his attention, in the absence of a high-strained, though 

 sometimes unhealthy excitement. 



What is true of nations, and of the eff'ect produced by 

 a perusal of their histories at different periods, is equally 

 true of individuals, and the occurrences which form the 



