pool,
and is sold by Mr. SHERWOOD, in London. The author has great ability,
and a perfect knowledge of his subject. It is a book of principles; and
any young person of common capacity, will learn more from it in a week,
than from all the other books, that I ever saw on the subject, in a
twelve-month.

316. While the foregoing studies are proceeding, though they very well
afford a relief to each other, HISTORY may serve as a relaxation,
particularly during the study of grammar, which is an undertaking
requiring patience and time. Of all history, that of our own country is
of the most importance; because, for want of a thorough knowledge of
what _has been_, we are, in many cases, at a loss to account for _what
is_, and still more at a loss, to be able to show what _ought to be_.
The difference between history and romance is this; that that which is
narrated in the latter, leaves in the mind nothing which it can apply to
present or future circumstances and events; while the former, when it is
what it ought to be, leaves the mind stored with arguments for
experience, applicable, at all times, to the actual affairs of life. The
history of a country ought to show the origin and progress of its
institutions, political, civil, and ecclesiastical; it ought to show the
effects of those institutions upon the state of the people; it ought to
delineate the measures of the government at the several epochs; and,
having clearly described the state of the people at the several periods,
it ought to show the cause of their freedom, good morals, and happiness;
or of their misery, immorality, and slavery; and this, too, by the
production of indubitable facts, and of inferences so manifestly fair,
as to leave not the smallest doubt upon the mind.

317. Do the histories of England which we have, answer this description?
They are very little better than romances. Their contents are generally
confined to narrations relating to battles, negociations, intrigues,
contests between rival sovereignties, rival nobles, and to the character
of kings, queens, mistresses, bishops, ministers, and the like; from
scarcely any of which can the reader draw any knowledge which is at all
applicable to the circumstances of the present day.

318. Besides this, there is the _falsehood_; and the falsehoods
contained in these histories, where shall we find any thing to surpass?
Let us take one instance. They all tell us, that William the Conqueror
knocked down twe