Since this Syllabus was first drawn up, many Works have appeared, which should now find a place in it.

Hallam on the Middle Ages, Sismondi, - Brodie, - vols. of Lingard's History, more valuable editions of Clarendon and Burnet, entertaining and instructive Works by Miss Aikin and Lord J. Russell, — -a Work on the Times of Charles the First, and the Republic, by Godwin, - a valuable Selection of the State Trials, by Phillips, a most important work on the Constitutional History of this Country, by Hallam, &c. &c. - A History

of our own Revolution, by a French writer, Mazure, and a History of the Times of Charles the First, by Guizot, a short History of Spain by Mrs. Calcott, a continuation of the Histories of Hume and Smollet, drawn up with diligence and ability by Mr. Hughes, of Cambridge, and valuable Publications by Coxe, Life of Marlborough, &c., and a History of Ferdinand and Isabella, by Prescott, the American historian.

On the subject of the French Revolution, the following Works have been recommended as a short Course.

Mignet, Thiers,

Mad. de Staël,- Account of Revolution in Dodsley's Annual Register, Histoire de la Révolution Française, par deux Amis de la Liberté, To these may be now added, Sir Walter Scott's two first volumes of his Life of Napoleon.

MEMOIRS On the subject of the French Revolution are now publishing by the Baudouin Frères at Paris. The following may be more particularly mentioned: Memoirs by M. de Ferrieres, - Mad. Roland, - Bailly, — Barbaroux,- Sur les Journées de Septembre, — Weber, — Hué, — Cléry, — Louvet, — Dumouriez,— Memoirs and Annals of the French Revolution, by Bertrand de Moleville, &c. &c.

The Speeches of Mirabeau should be looked at, and Necker's Works, for the earlier periods of the Revolution. -There is a democratic Work by Bailleul, written in opposition to the Considerations of Mad. de Staël. There is a Précis of the Revolution, begun by Rabaut de St. Etienne and continued by Lacretelle.

There is an useful work, Revue Chronologique de l'Histoire Française, from 1787 to 1818, by Montgaillard, now expanded by the same writer into a regular History.

There is a History by Toulongeon.

INTRODUCTORY LECTURE.

1809.

I MUST avail myself of the privilege of a prefatory address to enter into some explanations with respect to the lectures I am going to deliver, which could not well find a place in the lectures themselves.

I must mention to you the plan upon which they are drawn up.

And I think it best to give you at once the history of my own thoughts in forming this plan, because such a detail will serve to display the general nature of the study in which you are now to engage, and will lead to observations that may afford to these lectures their best chance of being useful.

My first impressions, then, with respect to a scheme for Lectures on Modern History, were these,

That, in the first place, all detail, all narrative, were impossible.

That the great subject before me was the situation of Europe in different periods of these later ages, the progress of the human mind, of human society, of human happiness, of the intellectual character of the species for the last fifteen centuries. Every thing, therefore, of a temporary nature was to be excluded; all more particular and local history; all peculiar delineations of characters, revolutions, and events, that concerned not the general interests of mankind. That the history of France or Spain or England was not to be considered separately and distinctly, but only in conjunction, each with the other; each, only as it affected by its relations the great community of Europe. That, in short, such occurrences only were to be mentioned, as indicated the character of the times, such changes only, as left permanent effects. That a summary, an estimate of human nature, as it had shown itself, since the fall of the Roman empire, on the great theatre

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of the civilized part of the world, was, if possible, to be given.

I must confess that this still appears to me to be the genuine and proper idea of a course of lectures on modern history. But to this plan the obvious objection was, its extent and its difficulty.

The great Lord Bacon did not find himself unworthily employed when he was considering the existing situation, and contemplating the future advancement, of human learning; but to look back upon the world and to consider the different. movements of different nations, whether retrograde or in advance, and to state the progress of the whole from time to time, as resulting from the combined effect of the failures and successes of all the parts, to attempt this, is to attempt more than was effected even by the enterprising mind of Bacon; for it is to appreciate the facts as well as to exhibit the theory of human society, to weigh in the balance the conduct, as well as the intelligence, of mankind, and to extend to the religion, legislation, and policy of states, and to the infinitely diversified subject of their political happiness, the same inquiry, criticism, and speculation, which the wisest and brightest of mankind had been content to extend only to the more particular theme of human knowledge.

Such were the first impressions produced upon my mind by the plan that had thus occurred to me.

It is very true, that, when they had somewhat subsided, I became sufficiently aware that objections like these must not be urged too far. That a plan might be very imperfectly executed, and yet answer many of its original purposes, as far as the instruction of the hearer was concerned, and that this was, on the whole, sufficient. The effect upon the hearer being the point of real consequence, not the literary failures or successes of the lecturer.

This scheme of lectures, however, I have not adopted, for, though I might fairly have been permitted to execute it in a slight and inadequate manner, I was persuaded that lectures would be expected from me in this place long before I could have attempted to execute it, in any manner, however imperfect and inadequate to my wishes.

Having mentioned this reason, it is unnecessary to mention

others, which might also have induced me to form the same resolution.

But a plan of this sort, though rejected by me as a lecturer, should always be present to you as readers of history. By no other means can you derive the full benefit that may and should be derived from the annals of the past.

Large and comprehensive views, the connexion of causes and effects, the steady, though often slow, and, at the time, unperceived influence of general principles; habits of calm speculation, of foresight, of deliberative and providing wisdom, these are the lessons of instruction, and these the best advantages to be gained by the contemplation of history; and it is to these that the ambition of an historical student should be at all events directed.

The next scheme of lectures, that occurred to me, was to take particular periods of history and to review and estimate several of them, if possible, in a connected manner. T'he period, for instance, of the Dark Ages, of the Revival of Learning, of the Reformation, of the Religious Wars, of the power and enterprises of Louis the Fourteenth, of the prosperity of Europe towards the close of the last century.

These periods could not be described and examined without conveying to the hearer a very full impression, not only of the leading events, but of the general meaning and importance of modern history. All the proper purposes of a system of lectures would be, therefore, by these means, very sufficiently answered; and, as the plan is somewhat confined and brought within a definite compass, it has the important merit of being practicable.

But after some deliberation, this plan, also, I have thought it best to reject; chiefly because to attempt it would be rather to attempt to write a book, than to give lectures. I do not say that those pages, which now make a good book, can ever have made bad lectures. But a lecture is, after all, not a book; and the question is, whether the same lecturer might not have improved his hearers more by a less elaborate mode of address.

Instead, then, of endeavouring to draw up any general history of Europe since the overthrow of the Roman empire in the west, and instead of attempting any discussion of different

periods under the form of regular treatises, I at last thought it best to fix my attention on my hearers only, and to confine my efforts to one point. The object, therefore, which I have selected is this, to endeavour to assist my hearers in reading history for themselves.

Now this plan of lectures, simple as it may at first appear, will be found to comprehend a task of more than sufficient difficulty for me, and be very adequate, as I conceive, to all the purposes which lectures can attempt to accomplish for you.

For, with respect to myself, what must be the province allotted to me? I must prefer one book to another, and must have reasons for my preference, and must therefore read and examine many.

In the next place, I must, from the endless detail of European transactions, direct the attention of my hearers to such particular trains in these transactions, as will, on the whole, give, if possible, a general and commanding view of the great subjects of modern history.

This cannot be attempted by me without meditating the whole, and considering the relations of all the different parts with great care and patience.

Lastly, I must endeavour, if I can, to state why particular periods or characters in history have become interesting, and to convey some portion of that interest to my hearers.

Such are the objects which I have selected as the fittest to excite my own wishes, and engage my own labors.

What, in the mean time, is to be the task that is to devolve upon you?

It must be for you to carry with you into your own studies the advice I have offered, the criticisms I have made, the moral sympathies, the political principles, by which I appear to have been myself affected, and these must, all of them, become the topics of your own reflection and examination.

It is, therefore, already evident, that we have, each of us, in our several provinces, enough to perform, if we do but endeavour to discharge, with proper diligence and ardor, the several duties that belong to us.

Turning now from the consideration of the plan of the lectures, to the mode in which I have endeavoured to execute