صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

deed they are intended only to afford connecting links, or stepping stones to more authentic æras. My great object has been to lead and stimulate to the investigation of truth

to furnish a clear and strong outline of facts, in such distinct, and immediate, and uninterrupted succession, as may naturally connect cause with effect, and obviously suggest a train of fair and rational reflections and conclusions. Such a plan I have found necessary to guard against the imperfect (if not false) impressions, which are too frequently made upon the imaginations of youthful students, by the terms in which historical characters or transactions are introduced to their notice ; - CoNQUEST, EMPIRE, MAGNANIMITY, GENEROSITY, CLEMENCY, JUSTICE, MODERATION, PIETY, PATRIOTISM, are terms to which the youthful mind attaches definite ideas, and through the medium of those ideas, as established by the exciting term, all is admitted that tends to confirm the original bias, all excluded that might naturally form a counterbias, by which the two sides of the question would be fairly balanced. A man leads a band of desperadoes into a distant province which he CONQUERS, and there with MAGNANIMITY, and GENEROSITY, and CLEMENCY, spares the lives of wives, children, and captives, encounters all hardships, divides his acquisitions with his followers, &c. &c.-He is a HERO! Such is the impression made, and it is seldom combated by reflection upon any the devastation of private property, the destruction of general peace and comfort, that marked the conqueror's track to the scene of his exploits: upon the injustice of seizing the property of another, the murderous cruelty of causing the death of the husbands and fathers of those to whom such CLEMENCY was shewn.-No, he is still a HERO; imperfections he might have, but they were the exuberances of his GREAT QUALITIES.-See Alexander the Great.) We read of a MIGHTY EMPIRE ;-its boundaries are not consulted; no matter if it contain but two hundred miles square, peopled with absolute savages,—it is

C

"

66

a MIGHTY EMPIRE," and he who successfully annoys its inhabitants, and forces them to acknowledge him the stronger in the contest, is its "CONQUEROR; " no matter if he hold it but six months, time as well as space, is overlooked.

The CHRISTIAN HERO with exemplary PIETY ascribes all his success to the direction of the true God, abjures his Pagan divinities, and encourages the true religion in his state. No examination is made as to its exemplification in his own moral character and conduct, he is a PROMOTER OF CHRISTIANITY; though he vacillate between contending sects, as an ambitious or inconsiderate policy may suggest ; though he put his own son to death, (see Constantine the Great); though he manifest, in various instances, an unjust, cruel, and vindictive temper, (see Clovis the Great); though he make his religion a cloak for the most barbarous outrages upon the Pagans who refuse conversion to Christianity, in one country, while he employs an army to establish the Mahommedan apostasy in another, (see Charlemagne); he is a model of piety and humility though he have been a murderer, a tyrant, and a usurper; and though he continue in his usurpation, laying aside only the outward insignia of royalty, (see Canute the Great). In all ages of history, the term PATRIOTISM has been applied to those who were what nothing but "the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth," speaking in their actions, sifted to their motives, and pursued to their consequences, can declare.-From such impressions from the language of some of our most learned and enlightened historians, it is surely incumbent upon us to guard the youthful mind, by furnishing it with means of forming a fair and consistent estimate of characters and transactions; and this I conceive may best be done by laying before our pupils the whole series of facts at once, instead of submitting to their perusal, in the first instance, those works in which the events are separated by the comments of the author. Let

it not be supposed that I would inculcate a spirit either of suspicion and distrust, or of severe and uncharitable censure: a habit of fairly summing up the evidence constituted by facts can never lead to such a result, for its natural tendency will be, to strengthen the judgment of the youthful mind, and to accustom it to look for, and aim at, consistency in all things. Due allowance will be made for those crimes in the heroes of antiquity, which belonged, in a great measure, to the character of the times in which they lived; and due praise bestowed upon those nobler qualities which were peculiarly their own: but crime will not be suffered to excite admiration, however brilliant it may appear, when surrounded by the blaze of heroic achievements.

I have found the present work conducive to the realization of this object, by giving in the Tables a clear full view of the facts which form the outline of general history, as comprised in the Scriptural Records, (the earliest and most uninterrupted chain of history), and in the history of the three great branches of the Early Settlements. of the Sons of Noah, merging at length into the four great empires by which Ancient Profane History is distinguished, and of which the history of every country, in every age of the world, may be considered either as a branch, or a dismemberment.

In the division of the periods of history which the Tables illustrate, I have been principally guided by the general flow of time as it related to the developement of civilization, literature, &c., in the hope of suggesting the expediency of combining the train of anecdote with the Biography, the Mythology, the Literature, the Monuments of Art, the Natural History, the Customs and Manners, the progressive unfolding of Evangelical truth, of each period. Such a method would make the past as it were present with us, and with respect to Sacred History in particular, be of incalculable advantage; for it was with a reference to the existing state of Manners, Customs, Natural History, &c. &c.,

that the similitudes, with which the propheticical writings abound, were drawn; and of which we cannot form an adequate idea, without identifying ourselves with the times in which they were written.

As the introduction of the Names of Illustrious Persons would have crowded the Tables, I have thought it better to subjoin them in an Alphabetical List, and the Explanatory part, illustrating the separate columns, will be thrown into a small volume, as the best adapted to purposes of comparison and reference.

It is not without a feeling of anxious diffidence that I announce, as a clue to the whole work, the two Tables relating to Prophecy.-In the first, I have endeavoured to sketch the regular course of God's revelations by his oracles and prophets; in the second, the line of accomplishment of those which form a peculiar connection between Sacred and Profane History. I am aware that some objection has been made to the introduction of so high and awful a subject into the common course of historical research; but when treated (as I trust it is in the present work) with reverence and sobriety, and an entire submission to such historical authorities as must secure it from the danger of being lowered in the hands of so humble an advocate as myself, the objection is obviated. The learned and pious Bishop Newton has declared, that " Prophecy is but History anticipated, as History is but Prophecy accomplished;" and surely every thing that tends to stimulate to the perusal, and facilitate the comprehension of such works as his "Dissertations on the Prophecies" may, with something more than safety, be introduced into an elementary work for the uses of education. As a guide and companion to the perusal of the best historical authors, its real use can only be ascertained by employing it in that character. The chronology of the whole has been arranged, as far as consistency and connection would admit, by Blair's Tables, (they being the most generally received,) occasionally rec

tified by the works of Lempriere, (and particularly in Sacred History), of Dean Prideaux, and Dr. Hales. The Ancient Profane History will be found to coalesce with any of the standard Universal Histories, and the best writers upon Grecian and Roman History. A necessary attention to brevity and clearness has induced me to abandon the intention I had originally formed, of making copious and particular references to the authors from whose works I have extracted. Independent of the additional expense that would attend such a plan, it would serve only to tire and perplex the eye: I have therefore only marked the material disagreements in the accounts of authors of equal celebrity upon important points. Where an error of date may seem to exist, a reference to the Explanatory part of the Work to which the particular column refers, will give the grounds of the difference. The greatest attention to accuracy and general consistency has been paid, both in the compilation of the Work, and in the carrying it through the Press; and no expense has been spared that could contribute either to its clearness, its durability, or its neatness. For its style and language I am anxious to claim some indulgence, upon the score of the state of suffering, both of body and mind, occasioned by frequent and severe attacks of indisposition, and repeated strokes of domestic calamity, that have marked the whole period of it's preparation for, and passage through the Press: but secure of not having laid myself open to the charge or penalty of either carelessness or presumption, I would rather challenge than deprecate, fair and candid criticism; and the more so, as it might afford me an opportunity of explaining an apparent, or of rectifying a real error, in the Second part of the work. To Subscribers only the First part, comprising the whole of Ancient History, is now presented.-To the Public it will not be introduced until the Tables of the Middle and Modern Ages shall have added the most interesting and useful portion of the Work,

« السابقةمتابعة »