proper to vitiate your style, and to mislead your heart and understanding. The expectation of extraordinary adventures,-which seldom ever happen to the sober and prudent part of mankind,-and the admiration of extravagant passions and absurd conduct, are some of the usual fruits of this kind of reading; which, when a young woman makes it her chief amusement,, generally render her ridi culous in conversation, and miserably wrong-headed in her pursuits and behaviour. There are, however, works of this class, in which excellent morality is joined with the most lively pictures of the human mind, and with all that can entertain the imagina. tion and interest the heart. But, I must repeatedly exhort you, never to read any thing of the sentimental kind, without taking the judgment of your best friends in the choice: for, I am persuaded, that the indiscriminate reading of such kind of books corrupts more female hearts than any other cause whatsoever. Before I close this correspondence, I shall point out the course of history I wish you to pursue, and give you my thoughts of geography and chronology: some knowledge or both being, in my opinion, necessary to the reading of history with any advan tage. I am, my dearest Nicce, Your ever affectionate. I LETTER IX. ON GEOGRAPHY AND CHRONOLOGY. My dearest Nicce, HAVE told you that you will not be able to read History, with much pleasure or advantage, with. out some little knowledge of Geography and Chronology. They are both very easily attained;-I mean in the degree that will be necessary for you. You must be sensible that you can know but little of a country, whose situation with respect to the rest of the world you are entirely ignorant of,and, that it is to little purpose that you are able to mention a fact, if you cannot nearly ascertain the time in which it happened; which alone, in many cases, gives importance to the fact itself. In Geography, the easiest of all sciences, and the best adapted to the capacity of children,-I suppose you to have made some beginning; to know at least the figure of the earth,-the supposed lines, -the degrees, how to measure distances,--and a few of the common terms: If you do not already know these, two or three lessons will be sufficient to attain them; the rest is the work of memory, and is easily gained by reading with maps; for I do not wish your knowledge to be exact and masterly, --but such only as is necessary for the purpose of understanding history, and without which, even a news-paper would be unintelligible. It may be sufficient for this end, if, with respect to ancient Geography, you have a general idea of the situation of all the great states, without being able precisely to ascertain their limits. But, in the modern, you ought to know the bounds and extent of every state in Europe, and its situation with respect to the rest. The other parts of the world will require less accurate knowledge, except with regard to the European settlements. It may be an useful and agreeable method, when you learn the situation of any important country, to join with that knowledge some one or two leading facts or circumstances concerning it, so that its particular property may always put you in mind of the situation; and the situation, in like manner, recall the particular property.-When, for instance, you learn in what part of the globe to find Ethiopia, to be told at the same time that, in that vast unknown tract of country, the Christian religion was once the religion of the state, would be of service, because the geographical and historical knowledge would assist each other. Thus, to join with Egypt, the nurse and parent of arts and of superstition;-with Persia, shocking des potism, and perpetual revolutions; with ancient Greece, freedom and genius;-with Scythia, ħardliness and conquest, are hints which you may make use of as you please. Perhaps annexing to any country the idea of some familiar form which it most resembles, may at first assist you to retain a general notion of it: thus Italy has been called a boot, and Europe compared to a woman sitting. The difference of the ancient and modern names of places is somewhat perplexing; the most important should be known by both names at the same time, and you must endeavour to fix a few of those which are of most consequence so strongly in your mind, by thinking of them, and being often told of them, that the ancient name should always call up the modern one to your memory, and the modern the ancient: Such as; the Egean Sea, now The Archipelago;-The Peloponnesus, now The Morea;-Crete, Candia;-Gaul, France;-Ba bylon. Bagdat;-Byzantium, to which the Romans transplanted their seat of empire, Constantinople; &c. There have been so many ingenious contrivances to make Geography easy and amusing, that I cannot hope to add any thing of much service; I would only prevail with you not to neglect acquiring, by whatever method pleases you best, that share of knowledge in it which you will find necessary, and which is so easily attained; and I entreat that you would learn it in such a manner as to fix it in your mind, so that it may not be lost and forgotten among other childish acquisitions, but that it may remain ready for use through the rest of your life. Chronology indeed has more of difficulty; but if you do not bewilder yourself by attempting to learn too much and too minutely at first, you need not despair of gaining enough for the purpose of read. ing history with pleasure and utility. Chronology may be naturally divided into three parts; the Ancient,-the Middle,-and the Modern. With respect to all these, the best direction that can be given is, to fix on some periods, or epochas, which, by being often mentioned and thought of, explained and referred to, will at last be so deeply engraven on the memory, that they will be ready to present themselves whenever you call for them: these, indeed, should be few, and ouglit to be well chosen for their importance, since they are to serve as elevated stations to the mind, from which it may look backwards and forwards upon a great variety of facts. Till your more learned friends shall supply you with better, I will take the liberty to recommend the following, which I have found of service to myself. In the ancient chronology, you will find there were four thousand years from the Creation to the Redemption of man;-and that Noah and his family were miraculously preserved in the ark, 1650 years after Adam's creation. As there is no history, except that in the Bible, of any thing before the Flood, we may set out from that great event; which happened, as I have said above, in the year of the world 1650. The 2350 years, which passed from the Deluge to our Saviour's birth, may be thus divided:-There have been four successive Empires called Universal, because they extended over a great part of the then known world; these are usually distinguished by the name of The Four great Monarchies: the three first of them are included in ancient Chronology, and began and ended in the following manner: 1st, The ASSYRIAN EMPIRE, founded by Nimrod in the year of the world 1800, ended under Sardanapalus in 3250, endured 1450 years. The Median, though not accounted one of the four great monarchies, being conquests of rebels on the Assyrian empire,-comes in here for about 200 years. 2d, The PERSIAN EMPIRE, which begun under Cyrus, in the year of the world $450, ended in Darius in 3670, before Christ 330; lasted a little more than 200 years. 3d, The GRECIAN EMPIRE, began under Alexander the Great in 3670, was soon after his death dismembered by his successors: but the dif ferent parcels into which they divided it, were pos sessed by their respective families, till the famous Cleopatra, the last of the race of Ptolemy, one of Alexander's captains, who reigned in Egypt, was conquered by Julius Cæsar, about half a century before our Lord's birth; which is a term of about 300 years. Thus you see that, from the Deluge to the esta blishment of the first great monarchy, the Assyrian, is ... ... 150 years. The Assyrian empire continued, The Median The Persian The Grecian 1450 200 200 300 From Julius Cæsar, with whom began the fourth great monarchy, viz. the Roman, to Christ... In all ........ the term from the Deluge to Christ. 50 2350 years; I do not give you these dates and periods as cor. |