and habit of
a blood-thirsty Fury, armed with daggers and instruments of murder, and
followed by a frantic and intoxicated multitude, but under the placid
and chaste aspect of Justice, holding with a pure and unsullied hand the
sacred scales in which the actions of mortals are weighed on the brink
of eternity.

The first translation was made and published in London soon after the
appearance of the work in French, and, by a late edition, is still
adopted without alteration. Mr. Volney, when in this country in 1797,
expressed his disapprobation of this translation, alleging that the
translator must have been overawed by the government or clergy from
rendering his ideas faithfully; and, accordingly, an English gentleman,
then in Philadelphia, volunteered to correct this edition. But by his
endeavors to give the true and full meaning of the author with great
precision, he has so overloaded his composition with an exuberance
of words, as in a great measure to dissipate the simple elegance and
sublimity of the original. Mr. Volney, when he became better acquainted
with the English language, perceived this defect; and with the aid of
our countryman, Joel Barlow, made and published in Paris a new, correct,
and elegant translation, of which the present edition is a faithful and
correct copy.

CONTENTS

Publisher's Preface
Translator's Preface
Preface of London Edition
Preface of the American Edition
Advertisement of the American Edition
The Life of Volney
A List of Volney's Works
Invocation

Chap.
I. The Journey
II. The Reverie
III. The Apparition
IV. The Exposition
V. Condition of Man in the Universe
VI. The Primitive State of Man
VII. Principles of Society
VIII. Sources of the Evils of Societies
IX. Origin of Governments and Laws
X. General Causes of the Prosperity of Ancient States
XI. General Causes of the Revolutions and Ruin of Ancient States
XII. Lessons of Times Past repeated on the Present
XIII. Will the Human Race Improve
XIV. The Great Obstacle to Improvement
XV. The New Age
XVI. A Free and Legislative People
XVII. Universal Basis of all Right and all Law
XVIII. Consternation and Conspiracy of Tyrants
XIX. General Assembly of the Nations
XX. The Search of Truth
XXI. Problem of Religious Contradic