AN UNIVERSAL HISTORY. TO THE DAUPHIN. THOUGH History were of no use to other men, it The should be made the study of princes. There is no al de better means of discovering to them the power of sign of passions and interests, the importance of times and work. conjunctures, and the consequences of good and evil counsels. Histories are composed only of such actions as they are engaged in, and every thing in them seems calculated for their use. If experience is ne cessary towards their acquiring that prudence which teaches to reign well, there is nothing more useful for their instruction, than to join their own daily experience in the examples of past ages. Whereas they usually learn only at the hazard of their subjects, and of their own glory, to judge of the critical affairs that come before them; by the aid of history they form their judgment upon past events, without risking any thing. When they see even the most secret faults of princes, exposed to the view of all men, notwithstanding the false praises bestowed on them in their lifetime, they are ashamed of the vain delight which flattery occasions them, and convinced that true glory can only consist with merit. Besides, it were shameful, not to say for a prince, but in general for any gentleman, to be unacquainted with mankind, and the memorable revolutions which the course of time has produced in the world. If we do not learn from history to distinguish times, we shall represent men under the law of nature, or under the written law, such as they are under the evangelical; we shall confound the Persians conquered under Alexander, with the Persians victorious under Cyrus; we shall make Greece as free in the days of Philip, as in those of Themistocles, or Miltiades; the Roman people as high-spirited under the emperors, as under the consuls; the church as quiet under Dioclesian, as under Constantine; and France, torn with civil wars in the time of Charles IX. and Henry III. as powerful as in the time of Lewis XIV. when united under so great a monarch, she alone triumphs over all Europe. It was, Sir, to avoid these inconveniences, that you have read so many ancient as well as modern histories. It was expedient, before all things, to make you read in scripture, the history of the people of God, which is the foundation of religion. You have not been left ignorant of the Grecian, nor of the Roman history; and what was to you of still greater importance, you have been carefully instructed in the history of that kingdom, which you are bound one day to render happy. But lest these histories, and those you have yet to learn, should confuse one another in your mind, there is nothing more necessarythan to set before you in a distinct, but concise manner, the series of all ages. This sort of universal history, is to the histories of each country and people, what a general map is to particular ones. In particular maps you see the whole detail of a kingdom, or province in itself; in general maps you learn to situate those parts of the world in their whole; you see what Paris, or the isle of France is in the kingdom, what the kingdom is in Europe, and what Europe is in the World. Just so particular histories represent the series of events, that have happened to a people with all their respective circumstances in turn; but in order to understand the whole, we must know the relation each history bears to others: which is only to be effected by an abridgment, wherein we see, as it were with one glance, the whole order of time. Such an abridgment, Sir, exhibits a noble spectacle to your view. You see all preceding ages unveil themselves, so to speak, in a few hours before you: you see how empires succeed one another, and how religion, in its various states, supports itself from the beginning of the world, down to our days. It is the progress of these two particulars, I mean that of religion, and that of empires, that you ought to imprint upon your memory; and as religion and political government, are the two hinges, whereon all human things turn, to see whatever concerns those particulars summed up in an epitome, and by this means to discover the whole order and progression of them, is to comprise in thought all that is great among men, and to hold, so to say, the thread of all the affairs of the world. As then in examining a general map, you leave the country where you are born, and the place that bounds you, to roam over the whole habitable earth which you grasp in thought, with all its seas and countries; so in considering a chronological epitome, you overleap the narrow bounds of your own time, and launch out into all ages. But in like manner as to help the memory in the knowledge of places, we mark certain principal countries, around which we place others, each at its proper distance; so,in the order of ages, we must have certain times distinguished by some great event, to which we may refer all the rest. This is what is called an Epoch, from a Greek word which signifies to stop, because we stop there, as at a resting place, to consider all that happened before and after, and by this means to avoid anachronisms, or that sort of error which creates a confusion of times. We must first confine ourselves to a few epochs, such as are in the times of ancient history: those of De Sign of this pi tome, is divi Adam, or the creation; Noah, or the deluge; the I give you this establishment of the new empire un- Having explained to you in general the design of this work, I have three things to do in order to make its usefulness answer to my expectation. I must first run over with you the epochs which I rste propose to your observation, and by pointing out to you, in few words, the principal events, which ought which to be annexed to each of them, accustom your mind sted in to range those events in their proper places, without ree regard to any thing but the order of time. But as parts, my principal intention is to make you observe in this progression of times, that of religion, and that of great empires; after carrying on together, according to the course of years, the facts which regard those two topics, I shall particularly resume, with necessary reflec tions, first, those which set forth to us the perpetual duration of religion; and, lastly, those which discover to us the causes of the great revolutions that have befallen empires. 1 Then, whatever part of ancient history you read, all will turn out to your advantage. No fact shall pass, but you shall perceive its consequences. You will admire the train of God's counsels in the concerns of religion: you will likewise see the concatenation of human affairs, and thereby will be sensible, with how great reflection and foresight they must needs be governed. PART I. boch THE first epoch immediately presents to you a grand Adam, and awful spectacle; God creating the heavens and creati- the earth by his word, and making man after his own Iage image. With this begins Moses, the most ancient of world. historians, most sublime of philosophers, and wisest of legislators. on. of the before Christ of the L Years Thus he lays the foundation as well of his history, Year Jesus as of his doctrine and laws. Next be shows us all world 2004 men contained in one man, and his wife herself extracted from him; matrimonial union, and the society of mankind established upon this foundation; the perfection and power of man, so far as he bears the image of God in his first estate; his dominion over animals; his innocence, together with his felicity, in paradise, the memory whereof is preserved in the golden age of the poets; the divine command given to our first parents; the malice of the tempting spirit, and his appearance under the form of a serpent; the fall of Adam and Eve, fatal to all their posterity; the first man justly punished in all his children, and mankind cursed by God; the first promise of redemption, and the future victory of men over the devil who had undone them. |