ates over which
they presided.

Such are the great objects which ancient history presents; causing to
pass, as it were, in review before us, all the kingdoms and empires of the
world; and at the same time, all the great men who were any ways
conspicuous; thereby instructing us, by example rather than precept, in
the arts of empire and war, the principles of government, the rules of
policy, the maxims of civil society, and the conduct of life that suits
all ages and conditions.

We acquire, at the same time, another knowledge, which cannot but excite
the attention of all persons who have a taste and inclination for polite
learning; I mean the manner in which arts and sciences were invented,
cultivated, and improved. We there discover, and trace as it were with the
eye, their origin and progress; and perceive, with admiration, that the
nearer we approach those countries which were once inhabited by the sons
of Noah, in the greater perfection we find the arts and sciences; whereas
they seem to be either neglected or forgotten, in proportion to the
remoteness of nations from them; so that, when men attempted to revive
those arts and sciences, they were obliged to go back to the source from
whence they originally flowed.

I give only a transient view of these objects, though so very important,
in this place, because I have already treated them at some length
elsewhere.(1)

But another object of infinitely greater importance, claims our attention.
For although profane history treats only of nations who had imbibed all
the absurdities of a superstitious worship; and abandoned themselves to
all the irregularities of which human nature, after the fall of the first
man, became capable; it nevertheless proclaims universally the greatness
of the Almighty, his power, his justice, and above all, the admirable
wisdom with which his providence governs the universe.

If the inherent conviction of this last truth raised, according to
Cicero's observation,(2) the Romans above all other nations; we may, in
like manner, affirm, that nothing gives history a greater superiority to
many other branches of literature, than to see in a manner imprinted, in
almost every page of it, the precious footsteps and shining proofs of this
great truth, _viz._ that God disposes all events as supreme Lord and
Sovereign; that he alone determines the fate of kings and the duration of
empires; and that he transfers the government of kingdoms from one natio