and according as we follow their Example, live in Repu tation or Ignominy.

Infomuch that the ruder Ages of the World, who were unacquainted with Letters, and confequently ignorant of refined Sciences, thought Hiftory, next to their Religion, the only useful and proper Study of Mankind; and judging the forming of the Manners, and regulating the Actions of Man, to be the chief Duty and Care of Societies, they thought Documents, Precepts, and Laws, too weak a Means to work fo great Effect, without they were confirmed and strengthened by the Examples of their Predeceffors; to which prone Nature, even amongst the most Barbarous, does willingly render an implicite Veneration : And therefore feeing their Libraries were their Memories, and Words their Characters, so Songs and rude Rhimes were the only Books whereby their Bards and Druids inftructed their Children in the Hiltories, of former Ages, making the famous Actions of their Ancestors fo much the more the Pattern of their Conduct and Manners, as it was the Subject of their Innocent Melody and, Mirth; And this Cuftom is at this Day in Practice amongst the uncultivated Heathens of Africa and America.

But when the kind Heavens were pleafed to gratify theIndustry of Man with the Invention of Letters; no Subject feemed to the Ancients fo worthy of the Prerogative of being tranfmitted to Pofterity, as that of Hiftory; and indeed, the most ancient that can be found of their Writings is of that Kind. Whether it was that they knew no Immortality but that of Fame; or found no better way to provide with Security for their Offspring, in whom they were to live to Pofterity, than by handing down to them the Methods and honest Courses, by which fome attained to Honour, Wealth, and Command, whilst others, by the contrary Ways, lived and died in Obfcurity, Poverty, and Contempt.

And the Defire of perpetuating the Memory is fuch a glimmering Glance of the primitive, but offulcated Light of Nature, that fome think it a convincing Argument to. prove the Immortality of the Soul; it being a vain Thing

for

for any, but efpecially a reasonable Being to defire that, to which it hath no natural Capacity: And the rather, that the greater and more elevated Souls of all Ages have afpired as much to the perpetuating of their Fame, as they: have to the purchafing of the fame; witnefs in ancient Time the great Alexander, who envied no Man but Achil les, for the Happiness he had in having Homer for his Hiftoriographer; and fince him Julius Cæfar, who notwithstanding he was tired out with the Fatigues of a continued and difficult War, yet as he thought no Man able to do what he had done, fo he judged none worthy to perpetuate his Memory, and to write as he fought, but himself.

But what Satisfaction foever dying Men may have in the Profpect of a lafting Name, it is certain, the Living reap great Benefit from the Register of their Actions; for would a Prince have Measures to govern, a Subject how to obey, a Statesman how to give Counfel, a Judge and. Magiftrate how to execute Juftice, a Husband and Father how to command and cherish, a Wife and Child how to love, honour, and obey; and all Conditions of Men. how to perform mutual good Offices in every kind of Society; Hiftory, and especially the trueft and most ancient of All, the Holy Scriptures, is that Repofitory from whence they may draw the trueft Maxims for all Duties, exemplified with the good or bad Succeffes of thofe who have followed or tranfgreffed the fame. And thus much in fhort. of History in general.

But as all Hiftories are not of the fame Nature, fo neither are they of the fame Ufefulness and Advantage: Not to mention the ancient Poets, which are good in their Way;: fome are fictitious Romances, which befide the Satisfaction they give the Author's inventing Head, are of very little,: if of any Ufe, unless it be to teach young Gallants to ftrut it in the Phrafe of Heroes, and Ladies to repartee like a Play-Book: And the Moralities, which we are told are couched therein, are too frequently applied in Serenades, Love-Letters, and Affignations.

Others are real Hiftories, or at least intended to be fuch, and are either ancient or modern, univerfal or particular;

of

of Kingdoms, or of private Families, foreign or domeftick: And are all very profitable, according to the feveral Qualities and Capacities of the Readers; which is a Point that needs no particular Difcuffion in this Place.

In the writing of Hiftories, fome Authors affect an Exactness of recounting Matters with the minutest Circumftances that attend them, and of omitting nothing that can have any Place in the Book; which, unless it be fome confpicuous and famous Transaction, looks liker the Depofitions of a Witness in a Trial, or the Breviate of a Lawyer at the Bar, than the Annals or Chronicles of a Nation; for it is enough for Pofterity to know the memorable Actions of a great King, or the Atchievements in a famous Battle, with fuch Circumftances as render them most confiderable in themselves, and fignificant to the Reader; though they be not told what Kind of Beard the King wore on his Wedding-Day, or to whom the Ground belonged where the Battle was fought.

Many likewife puzzle both themselves and their Readers, with a too nice Enquiry into the first Original of Nations, and especially by what new Flight of Colonies, or Tranfmigration of People, Iflands, and Countries, difcontinued from the Continent, became first inhabited; and in this Search, fo foon as they tranfgrefs the Bounds of authentick Records and Monuments of Antiquity, the reft is no more HiStory, but the Conjectures and Probabilities of the Authors. It is true, that fince we are taught by our Religion, That all Mankind defcended from Adam, and confequently as they increafed in Number by new Generations, fo they fucceffively enlarged their Habitations into remoter Regions, until the habitable World was poffeffed; it would be very curious for Men to know from what Branch of the Stock they are defcended; and not with the Ancients, who understood nothing of the Creation, believe thofe People, whofe Original was unknown, to be Indigene, that is, started out of the Country they inhabited. But that being impoffible to be attained to, fince the Memory of Man cannot, and Letters were not invented to preferve the Knowledge of the various Changes and Mutations of elder Times; we fhould fatisfy ourselves (knowing that we are Men) with

what

what we find in received Records concerning the Begin nings, Progress, and Changes of Kingdoms and States, without troubling ourselves with our ancient Relations who were not one Drop of Blood a-kin to William the Conqueror.

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"The Defign therefore of this little Manual of Hiftory. " is not to amufe the Readers with the ftrange Romances. "of the first Peopling of this Island, nor to give a List "of the Kings who reigned here, probably enough, even "before Æneas, or his Son Afcanius; nor yet to burthen "their Memory with all the leffer Occurrences, that are fully and at large related in many ample Volumes of this "Kind; but only to ferve as a Remembrancer to those who "have already studied the Hiftory of England, that in a "fhort View they may refresh and rub up their Memories "as to imaller Circumstances, by the General Heads, and "more remarkable Paffages, which they fhall here find faithfully digefted in a fuccinct Method, both as to Time "and Place; and for others, whofe Humour or Leifure "will not permit them to turn over larger Volumes, this "fmall Pocket-Book, if carefully and often perused, may acquaint them with as much as is neceffary perhaps for "them to know of the State of this Kingdom, in relation "to Times paft, for fatisfying their own Curiofity, and "rendering them able to entertain others, who want the "fame Advantages of Knowledge.

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"This Compendium then prefents the Reader with what "has been moft remarkable in the feveral Changes of Go"vernment that have happened in this Kingdom fince the "firft Invading of the land by Julius Cæfar; tracing "down the Succeffon and Lives of the feveral Emperors, "from that time till it was forfaken (because it could not "be kept) by the Romans: With the feveral Races of the

British, Saxon, Danish, and Norman Kings, till the Ac"ceffion of his prefent Majefty to the Throne. It gives "likewife an Account of all the Archbishops of Canterbury, "fince it was erected into a Metropolitan See: And, in a "Word, enough to let us fee, how by the Bleffing of "GOD, the Prudence of Governors, and the Unanimity and "Loyalty

"Loyalty of the People, this Kingdom, though fometimes "over-clouded by home-bred Diffenfions, yet has conti"nued, for many Ages, to be the Envy and Terror of its "Neighbours; abounding in all the worldly Enjoyments "that were fit to be expected from a bountiful God, or to "be defired by a virtuous People. To conclude, we may "expect ftill the Continuance of the fame Bleffings, un

lefs our Sins and Wantonness bring upon us the fame "or worfe Judgments than our Forefathers ever felt; and "inftead of a delightful and fruitful Soil, turn our Land « into a barren Wilderness; and give us Cause to say with "the Poet,

Infelix lolium & fteriles dominantur avenæ.

THE