understanding comprehended all forts of erudition and whofe understanding was reinforced by tafte, without which that • erudition would have been infipid, and scarce entitled to the name of merit.

I prepared that ground-work folely for her use and my own, as may be plainly feen by confidering the beginning: it is an account to which I freely call myself, of what I have been reading: the best method of learning and ac< quiring diftinct ideas: for a bare reading alone leaves little more than a confused picture in the memory.

My principal aim was to trace the revolutions of the human understanding in thofe of governments.

6 I endeavoured to difcover in what manner fo many bad men, conducted by worfe princes, have notwithstanding, at the long run, established societies, in which the arts and fciences, and even the virtues have been cultivated.

I attempted to find the paths of commerce, that privately repairs the ruins which favage conquerors leave behind them; and I ftudied to know, from the price of provifions, the riches or poverty of a people; above all things, I examined in what manner the arts revived and supported themselves in the midst of such defolation.

The character of nations is ftrongly marked by poetry and eloquence. I tranflated paffages from fome of the antient oriental poets; and still remember one from the Perfian Sadi, upon the power of the Supreme Being, in which we see the fame genius that infpired the Arabian, Hebrew, and all oriental writers: that is, more imagination than propriety; more of the fuftian than the fublime: their diction is figurative, but their figures are often very ill arranged, their fallies of imagination are hitherto vague and fuperfi cial, and they are utterly ignorant of the art of tranfition, This is the paffage from Sadi in blank verfe.

He knows diftin&ly that which never was,
His ear is filled with what was never heard,
A monarch he, that needs no kneeling flave;
A judge that executes no written law,
With his omnifcience, like a graver's tool
He traced our features in each mother's womb.
From morn to eve he leads the fun along,
With rubies fows the mountain's mighty mafs:
He takes two drops of water; one starts up

A perfect man, the other fhines a pearl.

He spoke the word, and Being fprung from nought,
His word the univerfe will quickly melt

Into th' immenfity of space and void;

His

His word will raise the universe again,

From depths of nothing to the plains of Being.

• Sadi was a native of Bactriana, and cotemporary with Dante, who was born in Florence, in the year 1265, and • whose verses did honour to Italy, even when there was not one good profe author among all our modern nations. This genius happened to rife at a time when the quarrels between the empire and the church had left rankling wounds in different ftates, as well as in the minds of men. He was a • Ghibeline, confequently perfecuted by the Guelphs; therefore we must not be furprized to find him venting his chagrin in his poem to this effect.

Two funs of old, in one united blaze,

Diffus'd their genial warmth and genial rays,
That banish'd darkness and display'd the road
Which leads bewilder'd man to truth and God.
'Th' imperial eagle's rights were plainly fhewn,
And the lamb's feparate privileges known.
But now no more that light congenial fhines,
One, dim'd with vapours, from his orb declines;
With dusky flame, and heat unhallow'd, teems,
Ambitious to eclipfe the other's beams ;

War, blood, contention, and confufion reign,
The lamb now roars a lion of the plain;

Proud in his purple, robes ufurp'd, appears,

And with the fhepherd's crook, the fov'reign's fcepter wears.

I tranflated about twenty pretty long paffages from Dante, Petrarch, and Arifto, and with a view to compare the genius of Nature with that of her imitators, I culled fome • parallel verfes from Spencer, of which I endeavoured to preferve the sense and spirit with the utmost exactnefs. Thus • I pursued the arts in their career.

Without engaging in the vaft labyrinth of philofophical abfurdities, which have been fo long honoured with the name of science, I only took notice of the moft palpable errors, ' which had been mistaken for the most inconteftible truths, and confining myself entirely to the useful arts, I ftill kept in view the hiftory of all the discoveries which have been made, from Geber the Arabian, who invented Algebra, to the laft miracles of our own time.

very

[Nature] fo we fuppofe it to have been intended, tho' in this publication it is printed nation. We have taken the liberty to make fome other fmall alterations, particularly in the punctuation, no, we hope, to its difadvantage.

G4

• This

C

This part of the history was, doubtlefs, the favourite of my attention, and the revolutions of ftates were no more than acceffary to those of arts and fciences. This whole work, which had coft me fo much trouble, having been ⚫ftolen from me fome years ago, I was the more chagrined, I found myself abfolutely incapable of beginning fuch a • tedious and toilfome task.' [May not the public have equal reason to regret our ingenious author's lofs?]

C as

That part which was purely historical, remained in my hands an undigefted mafs: it is brought down to the reign of Philip II. and ought to be continued to the age of • Lewis XIV.

This feries of hiftory, difincumbered of all the details. which commonly obfcure the plan, as well as of all those • minute circumftances of war, fo interefting at the time, but fo tedious afterwards, together with the fmaller occurrences, which never fail to injure the great events, ought to compose a vaft picture, which, by ftriking the imagination, might affift the memory.

Several perfons expreffed a defire of having the manufcript, imperfect as it was, and indeed there are above thirty copies of it, which I gave the more willingly, because finding myself unable to work longer on the fubject, I confidered them as fo many materials put into the hands of those who might finish the performance.

When Mr. de la Bruiere had the privilege of the French Mercury, he begged of me fome fheets, which appeared in his journal about the year 1747, and were afterwards collected in the year 1751: for they make collections of every thing. What relates to the Croifades, which was but a part of the work, they inferted in this collection * as a detached piece, and the whole was printed, very uncorrectly, under the prepofterous title of, A Plan of the Hiftory of the Human understanding t. This pretended plan of the history of the • human understanding contains no more than fome hiftorical chapters relating to the ninth and tenth centuries.

A bookfeller at the Hague having found a more com⚫plete manufcript, has printed it under the title of, An Abridgement of the Univerfal Hiftory, from the time of Charles the great, to the reign of Charles V. altho' it goes not fo far as • Lewis XI. king of France: probably he had no more copy,

*This collection appeared in England in the year 1752.

+ Mention is made of this particular performance in the 7th volunie of the Review, page 376, and 386.

• or

or was refolved to fufpend the publication of his third * • volume, untill the other two fhould be fold off.

He fays, he bought the manufcript of a man who lives at Bruffels and indeed I was informed, that a domestic be→ longing to his highness Prince Charles of Lorrain, had been long in poffeffion of a copy, which fell into his hands by a very remarkable accident: for it was taken in a box, among the equipage of a certain prince, which was pillaged by the Huffars, in a battle fought in Bohemia. This work being therefore got by the right of war, is a lawful prize: but one would imagine the fame Huffars had directed the printing †; for it is ftrangely disfigured, and the most interesting chapters are totally wanting. Almost all the dates are false, and the proper names, for the moft part, difguifed. There are 'many expreffions which convey no idea, and a number that convey such as are either ridiculous or indecent.

The

tranfitions, the connections, are all mifplaced. I am often made to fay that which is quite contrary to what I have • faid; and I cannot conceive how any body should read that work, as it has been prefented to the public. I am very glad the bookseller has found his account in the fale of it; but if he had confulted me on this fubject, I would have enabled him to oblige the world with a work that would not have been fo defective; and feeing it was impoffible to stop the impreffion, I would have taken all imaginable care to arrange that uninformed mass, which, in its prefent condition, ⚫ does not deserve the notice of fenfible man. any

As I did not believe that any bookseller would have run the risk of publishing fuch an imperfect work, I frankly own I have made ufe of fome of the materials to build a more $ regular and folid edifice. One of the moft refpectable prin• celles of Germany ‡, to whom I could refuse nothing, having done me the honour to defire I would write the annals ⚫ of the empire, I have made no fcruple to infert a small number of pages from that pretended univerfal hiftory, in the • work which fhe commanded me to compose,

* This third volume, or part, with a preface, feemingly, com piled from hints taken from this letter, made its appearance in Englife not long ago.-Some account was given of it in the laft volume of the Review p. 462.

+ It is not impoffible, but Mr. Voltaire may incline to be of the fame opinion with refpect to his English editor.

The dutchess of Saxe-Gotha, to whom this work is dedicated, and to whom the other letter we propofe laying before our readers is addreffed.

• While I was bufied in giving her serene highness this proof of my obedience, and the annals of the empire were almoft already printed off, I understood that a certain German, who was last year at Paris, had employed his talents on the fame fubject, and that his work was ready to appear. Had "I known the circumftance fooner, I fhould certainly have put a stop to the impreffion of mine: for I know he is < more equal than me to fuch an enterprize, and I am far 'from pretending to enter the lifts with fuch a rival; but the bookfeller to whom I have made a prefent of my manuscript has taken too much pains in ferving me, to be deprived of the fruits of his labour: befides, the taste and manner in which I have wrote thefe annals of the empire being altogether different from the method obferved by that learned gentle• man, whom I have had the honour to mention, perhaps the • understanding reader may not be forry to see the fame truths difplayed in different lights."

The other letter ftands at the end of the fecond volume, and is addreffed to her ferene highness madam the dutchess dowager of Saxe Gotha,

• Madam,

Colmar, March 8,1754•

Your auguft name has ornamented the beginning of these annals, permit that it may crown the end; this little abridgment was begun in your palace, with the affiftance of the ⚫ old manuscripts of my effay on univerfal history, which had lain there a long time; and tho' this manufcript was no more than a very indigefted collection of materials, I nevertheless made it useful. I had already caused the first volume of the annals, of the empire to be printed, when I was informed, that fome loofe fheets of this old manuscript had fallen into the hands of a bookfeller at the Hague.

Thefe loofe fheets, without either order or connection, • doubtless transcribed by an ignorant hand, disfigured and falfified, were, to my great concern, reprinted feveral times at Paris and elsewhere.

Your ferene highness has fignified your refentment upon this account in your letters to me. You know how much the real manufcript, which is in your poffeffion, differs from the fragments that have been publifhed. It is my duty loudly to reprove and condemn fuch an abufe; and above four months fince I acquitted myfelf of this obligation in the letter to a profeffor of hiftory, prefixed to the annals. And I now, madam, repeat this juft proteftation, under your fa¬ vourable protection.

7

• With