Had human wisdom alone governed the world, had no greater system been established for the progress of mankind than what human foresight could impose;had no unseen hand controlled the violence of national passions, or directed them to ends which they did not anticipate,— the race of man must long ago have been extirpated from the earth, and the animosities of barbarous nations closed only in mutual destruction. In the midst, however, of this dark retrospect, while we see the stream of war and of conflict descending to us from the beginning of history, we see at the same time, (as if by some enchantment,) the race of man silently growing in number, and increasing in power, and spreading itself over all the surface of the habitable earth. Nations sink into oblivion, or are overwhelmed by mightier arms. The seats of empires are changed, and the traveller scarce ly finds the place where their power and their magnificence were known. But MAN, in the meanwhile, survives the desolation; his generations multiply over that surface which is yet wet with the blood of his forefathers;-an unseen Providence watches over the infancy of his social being; and the same Almighty Power, which restrains the tide of the ocean, hath also in every age said to the tide of war, "Hitherto shalt thou go, and no farther; "and here shall thy proud waves be "staid." : 2. The second observation which is fitted to impress us upon the review of the history of the world, is, that whatever may have been the revolutions of nations, they have uniformly tended to the progress and improvement of the human race. It is not thus, indeed, in general, that we either judge or are taught to judge of them. We read the history of particular nations; but we seldom extend our conceptions to the nobler history of MAN.We read with rapture the history of those mighty empires which, in their hour, have subdued, or have enlightened the world, and for which, perhaps, the prejudices of our education have given us an unnatural respect. We follow their progress with a kind of national exultation, and we weep at last over their fall, as if, with them, all the honours of humanity had perished. It is only when we enter the "counsels "of God," that we descry a nobler prospect. It is then we see, that, in "the 66 eye of Him who inhabiteth eternity, all "nations are only as the dust in the ba"lance;"-that, in the progressive system of His Providence, they have all appeared in their successive order, for the improvement of the ages that were to follow them ;-that, in their prosperity, or their decay, they have alike given the lessons by which mankind are to be made wiser and better;—that there is a final period to which all their errors are conducting them; and that then the mighty prophecy of Revelation will be fulfilled, when, under its unseen, but unceasing influence," one like the Son of Man "shall reign: and when a dominion shall "be created in righteousness, that shall "not be destroyed." The historians of nations, indeed, rise not to these speculations! They limit themselves to the history of single countries. In the interest which they labour to create for them, they, in some measure, diminish our interest for humanity in general; and, whatever be their genius or their comprehension, they are not called upon to register the events of the great system of Nature, or to trace, through every temporary obstacle, the steady march of the Human Mind. It is Religion - only, it is the page of Revelation, which can alone give to us, amid all the devices of men and of nations, the key of human destiny ;-which can raise us from the narrow contemplation of individual interests, to the exalted study of the progress of the world; which can shew us that, from the beginning of time, all events have been contributing to the gradual illumination of the general race of man and which, while it carries our eyes backward to the sanguinary scenes of antiquity, can point out to us, at the same time, that they were all ministering to final good ;—that from their errors has sprung our wisdom ;-from their poverty our riches;-from their ignorance our knowledge;-and that even the progress of conquest (however infamous in its motives, or unhallowed in its means,) has yet, under the Providence of the Eternal Father, been made subservient to |