A HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF RICHARD COEUR-DE-LION KING OF ENGLAND BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ. AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF CHARLEMAGNE," "LIFE OF EDWARD THE INTRODUCTION. WHOEVER has given the slightest attention to the history of the human mind, must have remarked, that at certain points it changes the path which it has previously been pursuing, assumes a new course suited to the circumstances that for the time surround it, labours therein until operating upon every thing within its sphere it has produced a complete alteration in all around it; and then again takes another direction, in which it once more proceeds till in that also it has effected certain results: all its operations tending to one great end; the enlargement of its own powers and scope of action, though often impeded by physical obstacles, often thrown back by great moral convulsions. Such changes in the direction of the human mind mark the true philosophical periods of his VOL. I. B |