(THE Heller Ancient and Prefent STATE 18/20 OF ENGLAND BEING A Compendious History OF ALL ITS MONAR CH S, FROM THE Time of JULIUS CESAR. Written by Dr. HOWELL And continued by an Impartial Hand to the End of the Year 1740. The TENTH EDITION illuftrated with LONDON: Printed for D. MIDWINTER, W. INNYS, A. WARD, J. and E.$22. ! THE AUTHOR's PREFACE T is as natural for Man to defire Knowledge, as bodily Suftenance; the one being the Food of the Mind, as the other is of the Body: And the Appetites of both being bomogeneous to the Principles from which they proceed; their Tendency to their feveral Objects is as eager, as the Faculty which produces it, is active; fo that though both flow from the Fountains of one and the fame Nature; yet the one refting in a material Repletion, must be acknowledged more limited, than the other, which admits of no Bounds or Satiety. But though Knowledge be Man's natural Defire, and the fimilar Nourishment of his better Part, the reasonable Soul; yet it is not alike fought after by all, nor in the fame Degrees and Kind. Some, whofe Conftitution has difpofed them to a Habit of lazy Senfuality, and others whom continual Difappointments have baffled into a Neutrality and Indifferency, as to Action, think it fufficient for Man to know, either how to live with Pleasure and Epicurean Eafe, or to die with affected Haughtiness and Stoical Apathy; neither of the A 3 Two Two regarding thofe Knowledges which delight Curiofity, or are ufeful to the Society of Mankind. Others again, who are altogether refined into Spirit and Contemplation, think their Time ill spent, unless they can be fo able to anatomize Nature, as to give the Causes of Things, which either never did exift but in Appearance, or if they do, are far more profitably understood by their Effects than Principles: And thefe two Extremes are the preternatural Vices of Appetite; the one being the Stupidity and Defect, and the other the Green-Sickness or Bulimia of the Defire. They therefore, whom Age, Learning, and Experience have licentiated to be Phyficians of the Mind, have taken fome Latitude in prefcribing Diets, according to the various Conftitutions of reasonable Men; allowing those, whom a natural Difpofition inclines to the light Food of Contemplation, fuch Studies as may nourish their Curiofity with the airy Ideas of Philofophy and fpeculative Mathematicks, and the nicer Learning of the Schools; judging. that the moft proper Nourifhment for fedentary Humours and volatile Fancies, who covet no more, but to know for themfelves, and to be guided by others: But to Men of a robust and fociable Habit of Mind, who are defirous both to know and to do Good to themfelves, and by their Quality and Condition are fitted for a higher Station in the World, when Providence pleafes to call them to it, they have always directed their Studies to a more active and ufeful Learning; fuch as practical Mathematicks and Hiftory, the one for improving the Works and Inventions, and the other the Conduct and Actions of Men in Society, judging Idleness, the Lethargy of the Mind, no ways to be fed, but to be cured by Difcipline and Animadverton. Now though Mathematicks, which tend to Operation, be of very great Ule in an induftrious and flourishing State or Age, both for the Glory and Profit of a People; yet feeing they require a peculiar Talent of Mind to fucceed in that Study, they cannot, nor ought they to be recommended to univerfal Practice, beyond that Mediocrity which renders Gentlemen fit, as in that, fo in other Parts of Arts and Sciences, to converfe with rational Company (it being it npoffible impoffible for one Man to be Master of all buman Knowledges) leaving the more laborious Profecution thereof to those whofe Genius or Vocation invites them to that Affiduity. But of Hiftory it may be faid, that Omne tulit punctum, nam mifcuit utile dulci. It is fo genuine and familiar to Men of all Estates, Ages, Qualities, Sects, and Conditions; fo agreeable to the Inclination, and fuitable to the Humour of All: So delightful in the Perufing, and profitable in the Retention, affording Content to the Aged, Pleasure to the Young, and Experience to both; Comfort to the Difconfolate, Refreshment to the Weary, and Eafe to difcomposed Minds; folacing the tedious Hours of penfive Watching,. or otherwife charming anxious Thoughts into a fweet. and gentle Repofe; being never out of Seafon, whilft Men have Life, and the World a Being; that amongst the many Elogies it hath received from the learned Pieces of ancient and modern Writers, it may be justly accounted rather the Recreation than the Application of a ftudious Man. It is indeed that Telescope by which we fee into distant Ages, and take up the Actions of our Forefathers, with as much Evidence as the News of the laft Gazette; it is the Mirror that reprefents the various Tranfactions of Times paft, and fhews us the Drefs of Antiquity, according to which we may rectify or adjuft our prefent Fashions; it is the Pandects of gentle and eafy Inftitutions and Laws, which ought to oblige us as much, if not more ftrictly to a Conformity, than the preceptive Sanctions of Princes; feeing the Authority of the one does but inculcate our Duty, and the other gives us innumerable Instances of the several Rewards of Virtue, and Punishments of Vice: It is, in a Word, the laft Will and Teftament of our deceased Progenitors; which though it does not exprefly leave every one of us a particular Legacy, yer it fhews us how we may be poffeffed of their Inheritance; A 4 and |