HISTORY. 
and interest the passions in general. 2. It 
improves the understanding : and, 3. It tends 
to strengthen the sentiments of virtue. In 
the first of these views we find history has a 
great advantage over every work of fiction : 
for we consider it as the voice of truth. r ! he 
second has been aptly illustrated by Boling- 
broke, who observes that “ He who studies 
history as he would philosophy, will distin- 
guish and collect certain general principles 
and rules of life and conduct, which a, ways 
must be true, because they are conformable 
to the invariable nature ofHhings; and by 
doing so lie will souii form to himself a gene- 
ral system of ethics and politics on the surest 
foundations, on the trial of these principles 
and rules in all ages, and on the confirmation 
of them by universal experience.” And the 
third is still more evident, from the very light 
hi which characters and events are seen in 
it. Fame is found just to the dead, however 
partial to the living. 
The sources of history form another topic 
of enquiry. The earliest of these was un- 
doubtedly tradition; the next, perhaps, 
poetical narrations; which, though often 
mixed with the -absurdities of fable, contain 
facts and characters of ancient life that il- 
lustrate the manners of the early ages. 
Coins, medals, and inscriptions, the works 
of artists of all kinds, and sometimes even 
rude heaps, are other monuments, whose 
collateral aids are equally necessary with the 
astronomical mediums employed by Newton, 
in the correction of chronology. In later 
times, as political society increased,, the ar- 
chives and laws of states perpetuated infor- 
mation in a more certain and extended form. 
The correct knowledge of events was easily 
obtained. Private experience could be join- 
ed to the information cpntained in public 
annals.; and fair topics were presented to the 
pen of every man who proposed to himself 
the task of an historian. 
In regard to what is necessary or useful to- 
be known previous to the study cf history, it 
it is proper to observe that it must be taken 
in very different degrees of extent, according 
to the views with which history is read ; and 
these depend very much upon the age and 
situation of the person who applies to it. But 
whdever proposes to study history scientifi- 
cally, must come to the reading of it furnish- 
ed with the first principles of certain sciences. 
If not the knowledge, at least a general idea 
of the principles of human nature, will be an 
excellent guide to us in judging of the con- 
sistency of human characters, and of what is 
within and what is without the reach of human 
powers. Philosophical knowledge, in gene- 
ral, will be found of the most extensive use 
to all persons who would examine with accu- 
racy the achievements of ancient nations 
in peace or war, or who would thoroughly 
weigh the accounts of any thing in which the 
powers of nature are employed. But those 
sciences which are of the most constant and 
general use are geography and chronology. 
A knowledge of the situation and relative, 
magnitude of the several countries of the 
ear th, assists and affords clear and distinct 
ideas of events; and a general comprehen- 
sion of the current of time enables us distinct- 
ly to trace their dependence on each other. 
Beside the^e, however, there are other 
helps. Obvious advantages will attend the 
use of a good compendium of general his- 
tory, previous to the study of any particular 
portion. The earliest epitome was the Chro- 
nicon Carionis, printed at W ittenberg, 1532 ; 
but the most celebrated are, Turselin’s, 
Bossuet’s, and Baron Holberg’s ; the last of 
these was translated into English by Mr. 
Gregory Sharpe. Of chronological tables 
the best and most completely useful are 
Blairs: and of the charts of history, Dr. 
Priestley's. These shew’ at once the refer- 
ence which the history of one country bears 
to that of another. 
The misapplication to which history is 
liable, evinces the necessity of prosecuting 
the study of it according, to a regular plan. 
To those who can reach its sources these di- 
rections may be serviceable : principally ob- 
tained from Dr.. Priestley- 
The sacred history may properly be said 
to stand alone : it is not only the most cer- 
tain,. but exhibits the continuation of the true 
religion uninterrupted from the creation of 
the world, and therefore ought to form the 
ground-work ot our study. 
The oldest history extant, next to the his- 
torical books of the Old Testament is that 
of Herodotus, who flourished about four 
hundred and fifty years before the Christian 
era, a little after the invasion of Greece by 
Xerxes. JFIis history comprises probably 
everv thing he had an opportunity of learning 
concerning the history of the Lydians, Ioni- 
ans, Ly eians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, 
and Macedonians: computing from the ear- ( 
lies! of his accounts to the latest, his history | 
may be reckoned to commence gbout seven j 
hundred and thirteen years before Christ, 1 
and to reach to about four hundred and se- j 
venty-nine before Christ ; a period of about 
two hundred and thirty-four years. 
Next to Herodotus, Thucydides is to be 
read; whose history reaches to the 2.1st year 
of the Peloponnesian w ar, the history of which 
is com pleated in the first and* second books 
of Xenophon’s History of Greece. After 
this, the student may proceed to the expe- 
dition of Cyrus, and the return of the Greeks: 
and then go back to the remaining books of 
Xenophon’s history. The fifteenth and six- 
teenth books of Diodorus Siculus contain the 
histories of Greece and Persia from the bat- 
tle of Mantinaa to the beginning of the 
reign of Alexander the Gteat, in the year 
33b before Christ. For the history of Alex- 
ander, Arrian, Quintus Curtius, and the tenth 
and eleventh books of Justin must be referred 
to. The eighteenth, nineteenth, and twen- 
tieth books of Diodorus Siculus contain the 
History of Greece from the year d23 before 
Christ, to the year 301 : the thirteenth, four- 
teenth, and fifteenth books of Justin will 
complete the period; and those which fol- 
low to the twenty-ninth inclusive, carry on 
the history to about the year 195 A.C. 
Lastly, in "the regular order’ of history read 
the thirteenth book of Justin, and all that 
follow’ to the two last, which completes the 
History of Greece till it mixes with that of 
the Romans. 
The lives of illustrious, men by Plutarch 
and Cornelius Nepos, form an excellent 
supplement to the regular historians. 
Of the above works, which contain not 
only the History of Greece, but that of all 
the nations of the world known to the his- 
torians,. Justin, Quintus Curtius, and Cor- 
nelitis Nepos. only, are in Latin ; the rest are 
in Greek. 
The following course of Roman History 
comprehends all that is to be learnt now ot 
the subsequent Anticnt History oi ail other 
nations. The writer who treats of the early 
part of the Roman history, in the fullest and 
most satisfactory manner, is Dionysius of 
Halicarnassus, a rhetorician as well as an 
historian: the remains of his works which 
originally brought the History ot Rome to 
the°beginning of the lir-t Punic war, end at 
tiiis time with the year 341 before Christy 
the time when the coBSuls'resumed the chief 
authority in the republic after the dissolution * 
of the decemvirate : so that to compleat the 
period w’e must go to the three first books ol 
Livy, whose history to the tenth book, in- 
clusive, brings that of Rome to the year 4a 1, 
of the building of the city, or 292 before 
Christ. To supply the chasm between the 
tenth and twentieth books of Livy, read "Po- 
lybius, the seventeenth, eighteenth, twenty- 
second, and twenty-third books of Justin, 
and Appian’s Punic and Illyrian wars; and 
afterwards the remainder of Livy from the 
twenty-first book to the end, which brings the 
history to 1 66 years before Christ. Sallusts 
History of the M ar of Jugurtha and the 
Catalinarian conspiracy, are the next books 
to be proceeded to: they are all which re- 
main to us of his works. The Commen- 
taries of Caesar, and Cicero’s Epistles to 
Atticus, are the next works to be consulted, 
followed by the remains of Dio Cassius, 
and the Compendium of Vellerius Patercu- 
lus. Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars, and 
: the Works of Tacitus, close the list ot Ro~ 
j man historians of the greatest eminence, 
j Those who are called the writers of the brasen 
I or iron age deserve a slighter mention. The 
! principal of these are, Xiphilin, Herodian, 
The Historic Augusta: Scriptores, Zozimu: , 
: Ammianus Marcellinus, Paulus Deaconus, 
i and Procopius; the last four, however, 
I may be omitted; and Nicetas Acomi- 
natus and Nicephorus Gregoras, followed by 
Joannes Cantacuzenus, substituted in then- 
room. Laonicus Chalcondiles brings up the 
conclusion of the Eastern Empire, in the 
year 1453, when Constantinople was taken 
by Mahomet II. 
To enumerate all the modern compilations 
of ancient history which may be serviceable 
to those w ho cannot make then - searches in 
the original authors would be endless. That 
of Rollin must not be passed over. The 
most 'complete body of history, however, an- 
cient and modern, is the Universal: which 
has references to the original writers for 
almost every paragraph of information. 
Gillies and Mitford have written -Histories 
of Greece, and Hooke is by tar the most 
preferable among the compilers of the Ro- 
man history. 
Having been thus particular on the sub- 
ject of ancient history, we shall go on to the 
enumeration of. those sources from which 
the last materials are derived for English 
history ;.. and then proceeding to the other 
countries of modern Europe, make a slight 
mention of the best historians of each. 
The earliest accounts ol Britain are to bo 
found among the Romans; and principally 
in the works of Julius (Ansar, Dio Cassius,., 
and Tacitus. Livy and Fabias Rusticus 
were others who wrote expressly on its his- 
