INTRODUCTION.

AMONG the different sciences which have tended through every age to embellish human life, the department of History has always held a distinguished rank. In the civilized nations of Europe it constitutes a considerable branch of liberal education; and a familiar acquaintance with past ages has always been esteemed an indispensable accomplishment. It elevates its individual possessor in the scale of society, and raises the contemplative mind from those local confines which bound our present state of existence.

ages

It is a department of science which unfolds the latent windings of the human heart, and affords the fairest opportunities through which we may trace those actions to their genuine sources, which appear in themselves uncertain and problematical, because their origin is involved in shade. It opens a communication with which are now lost in the ocean of eternity, and gives to us the real and unvarnished characters of statesmen, divines, philosophers, and heroes; on each of which the mind may expatiate with freedom, unbiased by prejudices, and uninfluenced either by hopes or fears.

It is a science which enables us, without the uncertainty of experiment, to connect the motive with the end; and to view with steady light a simple measure in its remotest consequences, without being impeded by those obstacles, or encircled by those mists and shadows, that frequently obscure to the more immediate spectator the scene of action; which, through these obstructing mediums, dazzles with a superficial glare, and bewilders and confounds, instead of imparting information.

It is a science which enables us to hold communion with different parts of the peopled globe, to estimate those national characters which we survey, and to observe those tints and shades which distinguish man from man. It teaches us, by our observations on mankind, how to improve by their disasters, and how to profit by their experiments, without either the hazard of miscarriage, or the mortification of disgrace, And by thus opening an intercourse with distant ages and regions, we not only discover the different productions of every climate, and every zone, but we have an opportunity of estimating the extent and diversity of the human intellect, in all its progressive stages of improvement,

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from perfect barbarism to mere civilization, and from mere civilization to the exalted refinements of polished life.

Through an acquaintance with History, we learn the advantages which result from a state of society; in which each man contributes to his brother's wants, and increases his own security by the advantages which he imparts. And from these advantages we are taught also to view the inconveniences which are inseparable from that state of savage solitude, in which every one must lie exposed to the depredations of his neighbour, without having it in his power to appeal to a coercive authority, which, in the present degenerate condition of man, can alone enforce the claims. of eternal justice.

By an acquaintance with History, we discover those latent and unsuspected causes, upon which the rise and fall of empires depend; we learn what objects contribute towards the stability of a people, and what modes of pursuit and conduct will inevitably terminate in decay. It places the mind of man upon an eminence from whence the eye wanders in immense excursions of reality; lives over those ages which elapsed before the deluge, and from whence we can survey with one glance an epitome of the world. It enables us, from a retrospection of the past, and a comprehension of the present, to form a probable calculation of the future, till time shall be no more. It enables us to connect eternity with eternity; and to behold it an encircling ocean, in which time and man, as to his present state, and the works of both, shall sink together, overwhelmed in the vast abyss.

An acquaintance with History is calculated to shew us the imbecility of all human efforts, as well as the shortness of human life; that death will ultimately sweep away the human race; and that time will at last destroy the most permanent labours of man. It will convince us, by the most indubitable evidence, that our triumphal arches must decay; that our most stately monuments must totter to their base; and that the most superb mausoleum must mingle with that dust which it was destined to protect. It will enable us to contemplate, with instructive reflections, the instability of all human grandeur and beauty; and assure us that nothing is in a state of safety which lies beneath the sun, unless it have an immediate connexion with God. It will induce the mind to sicken with disgust at the uncertainty of worldly glory, and to investigate with unremitting attention those sacred records which teach us to look to the Author of our being to find stability and repose; and will lead us to place all our confidence in him, and in those objects which can neither expire nor change.

In these views the able historian at once instructs and entertains us, and communicates information through the mediums of delight. He pleases the fancy, while he informs the judgment;

and, directing us to what is right by pointing out what is wrong, he corrects the sallies of our passions while he meliorates the heart. On these accounts the faithful historian may be considered as a public benefactor, by imparting moral lessons to mankind. For these reasons he stands highly in the public estimation, and holds the foremost place in the republic of letters. It is to his faithful page that scientific men resort; it is he that decides debates in the literary world; who fixes the boundaries of remote antiquity, and from whose decisions there can be no appeal.

It is through his faithful page that we have any acquaintance with ancient times, or with those branches of science which have enriched the world. It is only through this medium that we know how the world was originally peopled, that we know our own origin, and can trace our end. Through this we can account for the diversity of language, and trace the myriads of human beings that now swarm the world, up to one common parent; and learn that God hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth. But for the page of history our sciences would still be in a state of embryo, to-morrow would be ignorant of the transactions of to-day, and one generation could hold no communication with another.

But for the unerring page of sacred History, we should have known nothing of the conduct of God towards the human race; all his dispensations would have been alike concealed; and, where we now behold redemption, and the amazing displays of infinite love, we should have seen nothing but a dreary blank, and must have contemplated futurity with horror. The origin of justice and of law would have been alike unknown; and our moral and intellectual condition would have been somewhat similar to that of the swarthy inhabitants of those islands which we are about to explore. To the sacred records we are indebted for the intelligence which we possess, for that light which we have to guide us in our inquiries into futurity, and through which we are enabled to discriminate between those actions which lead to rewards or punishments beyond the grave. It is sacred history that gives rationality to our faith, and energy to our hopes; that, under divine grace, teaches us how to pass through time with tranquillity, and to expect felicity in a future state.

History, in general, may be considered as a science without which all others would be almost useless; and without much impropriety we may denominate it the memory of the world. There is hardly a circumstance to which it will not apply; nor is there a science which it does not more or less include. The natural, the civil, and the religious world, it encircles in one enlarged embrace; and it is attentive to the vices as well as the virtues of mankind. The foibles and excellencies of human nature are delineated on

its records; and those characters which have been rendered conspicuous in either view, descend to posterity accompanied with infamy or renown.

But while the genius and pen of the historian have been so laboriously employed in filling whole volumes with relations of conquests and depredations; of battles, sieges, victories, and defeats, in which every page appears stained with blood; while he details with minute exactness the horrors of sanguinary revolutions, which involve the desolation of kingdoms and the murder of millions of the human race; it cannot be reflected on without regret, that so little has been written upon that most important of all concerns, the introduction, progress, and final establishment of the Christian religion among multitudes of those almost innumerable hosts of savages who inhabit the remoter regions of the globe. And yet it is to the gospel, that Great Britain, in all probability, stands indebted for the preservation of many of her richest colonial possessions even to the present day; that her swarthy subjects have not revolted like those of a neighbouring island; and committed those depredations on the white inhabitants, which humanity even shudders to name.

But whatever advantages may have resulted from the establishment of Christianity in foreign regions, it seems in general to have had little or no share in those historical departments of literature which have analyzed our insular possessions in the torrid zone. A solitary hint, a vagrant passage, or a detached paragraph, contains all that some voluminous works supply, relative to the progress of the gospel, though considerable portions are appropriated to points of no comparative moment; points which can hardly awaken curiosity, and in which interest seems to have little

or no concern.

Commercial and political histories are in general what they profess. The writers of such volumes, however much they may develop the sources of human action, and unravel the latent windings of the human heart, calculate no higher than secondary causes. They make certain modes of policy the parents of commerce, and terminate their inquiries in a single branch. They estimate the advantages which result from commerce by the aggrandizements which ensue, and make the influx of wealth the boundary of their design.

The primary source of colonial advantages is frequently overlooked by colonial writers, and is lost in an effect, or a combination of effects, which result from it. Political manœuvres frequently monopolize that honour which belongs to the gospel, and their records ascribe to the ingenuity of man deliverances and preservations which belong solely to the providence of God. The interests which are rooted so deeply in the human breast,

are on such occasions the strongest incentives to action; and they influence the judgments of those who obey their dictates almost beyond the power of calculation. The ascendency of these interests suffers nothing to move beyond the boundaries of its sordid confines; and prompts its votaries to stigmatize with epithets of opprobrium those who presume to act with nobler aims.

When enterprises under the influence of ambition are directed towards fame, rather than the interests of the human race, they are not unlikely to arrogate those honours which are the produce of another soil: but let it be remembered, that it was Columbus who discovered America, though he was supplanted by power, and sent to Europe in chains.

Commercial advantages are, without all doubt, intimately connected with the policy of nations; but the internal action of that policy supposes the previous civilization of the subject. It is only civilization that can render policy beneficial, or give permanency to that intercourse with nations which interest wishes to keep alive. It is this which can alone fix the boundaries of right, give justice to coercion, and unite effective energy with law. Civilization must therefore be prior to all permanent advantages which can result from those compacts which policy establishes, and consequently in the scale of honour it holds a higher rank.

But while we admit civilization to hold this exalted rank in the rising scale of eminence, it would be unjust to bury in oblivion the active cause from whence it springs. The tribute of applause is without doubt due to every excellency: to withhold it is ungenerous; but to apply it erroneously is unjust.

The influx of wealth from distant regions may be justly ascribed to commerce; the establishment of commerce, to the excellencies of policy, in its direction of that civilization which must be admitted to have a previous existence; while the excellencies of policy can only arise from the superior state of refinement, which marks those European nations in which civilization softens into all the graces of polished life.

But when, from mere civilization, we turn our thoughts to that cause which chiefly contributes to its existence, we shall find it Occupying the highest station, and therefore entitled to those superlative honours which can be considered as subordinate to nothing short of God. The benefits which result from our intercourse with distant parts depend upon the civilized state of the inhabitants; and our advantages are permanent or uncertain in proportion as barbarism is removed, and the cultivation of the human mind appears. It is therefore to this cause that we stand indebted for the various advantages which we receive, and which flow to us through the different mediums of civilization, of policy, and of commerce; and this cause is--the gospel of Jesus Christ.