Α MANUAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY: CONTAINING THE POLITICAL HISTORY, GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION, AND SOCIAL CAREFULLY REVISED FROM THE ANCIENT WRITERS BY W. C. TAYLOR, LL.D., M. R. A. Sm OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. REVISED, BY C. S. HENRY, D. D., PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY THE NEW YORK 143746 ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS 1900. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. PREFACE. IN bringing out an American edition of this work, the publishers were desirous not only to furnish a valuable work for general readers, but also to make it in point of size and price as well adapted to the wants of public instruction as they believed it to be in intrinsic merit In complying with their request to revise the work with this view, the present editor has made a few slight curtailments-principally in the irst part of the volume of Ancient History-which could be made without suppressing or in any way distorting or impairing any material fact or statement. In the English edition, all that is to be found relating to the history of the United States amounts to two or three pages, interspersed in he history of England. In the place of these meager notices, the present editor has appended to the volume of Modern History a distinct and special chapter, giving to the history of the United States its proportionate place in general history, and to which it is certainly entitled in a work designed for public instruction in this country. He trusts that this sketch will be found to contain a fair and clear view of the leading events of our history. In the preface to the third American edition of Guizot's History of European Civilization, the present editor took occasion to offer some remarks upon the study of history as a part of the course of studies pursued in our higher institutions: in which he attempted to answer the extremely difficult question, "How best to employ the very limited time allotted to history in the usual course of public instruction?" On the one hand, it is obvious that a thorough knowledge of history (which it is the work of years to gain) can never be acquired in the time allowed; and on the other hand, it is far more difficult to make a successful be ginning, to lay a good foundation in history, than in the other studies included in the usual public course. This it is which makes the most useful employment of the little time allowed so perplexing a problem. The conclusion to which the editor arrived was, that in the impossibility of communicating a thorough knowledge of history in this time, thus much should be attempted: 1. The study of some judicious work of general history; 2. The study of some good specimen of the philosophy of history, as it is called, or the method of generalizing and reflecting upon the facts of history; and 3. The thorough investigation of some small portion of special history. The editor recommended the work of Guizot, referred to above, as a good specimen of philosophical reflection upon history; and he knows no work on general history better adapted to the purpose of public instruction than the present. NEW YORK, December 11, 1844. C. S. H. |