The Project Gutenberg EBook of The History of England in Three Volumes,
Vol.I., Part B., by David Hume

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Title: The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part B.
From Henry III. to Richard III.

Author: David Hume

Release Date: September 8, 2006 [EBook #19212]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF ENGLAND ***

Produced by David Widger and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND

FROM THE INVASION OF JULIUS CAESAR

TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF JAMES THE SECOND,

BY DAVID HUME, ESQ.

1688

London: James S. Virtue, City Road and Ivy Lane
New York: 26 John Street
1860

And

Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippincott & Co.
March 17, 1901

In Three Volumes:

VOLUME ONE: The History Of England From The Invasion Of Julius Caesar To
The End Of The Reign Of James The Second............ By David Hume, Esq.

VOLUME TWO: Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of
George II........................................... by Tobias Smollett.

VOLUME THREE: From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year
of the Reign of Queen Victoria............... by E. Farr and E.H. Nolan.

VOLUME ONE

Part B.

HENRY III. TO RICHARD III.

CHAPTER XII.

[Illustration: 1_155_henry3.jpg HENRY III.]

HENRY III.

{1216.} Most sciences, in proportion as they increase and improve,
invent methods by which they facilitate their reasonings, and, employing
general theorems, are enabled to comprehend, in a few propositions,
a great number of inferences and conclusions. History, also, being a
collection of facts which are multiplying without end, is obliged to
adopt such arts of abridgment, to retain the more material events, and
to drop all the minute circumstances, which are only interesting during
the time, or to the persons engaged in the transactions. This truth is
nowhere more evident than with regard to the reign upon which we are
going to enter. What mortal could have the patience to write or read a
long detail of such frivolous events as those with which it is filled,
or attend to a