C . , . 6 2,5 q\ a: 1 e. 0‘3.r_,_,,lx51i\eksi 311.3... 1-3airuéih'rlri University of Pennsylvania Library _Circulation Department Please return this book as soon as you have finished with it. In order to avoid a fine it must be returned by the latest date stamped below. ”8.3-5! r DESCRIPTIVE GUIDE TO THE gtream of ’dEimé; on, K~ GENERAL OUTLINE UNIVERSAL HISTORY, CHRONOLOGY, AND BIOGRAPHY, AT ONE VIEW. '—.— Labitur et labetur in omne volubilz's w'vum, fluminis ritu. Hon. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN 0F FREDERIC ST‘RASS, AND CONTINUED DOWN TO 1810, BY WILLIAM BELL. FOURTH EDITION, ENLARGED AND IMPROVED. HULL : PRINTED BY 'JosEPn summons, QUEEN’STREET, FOR C. COX, BOROUGH: LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWNE, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND G. COWIE, POULTRY, LONDON» _ TO THE REV. FRANCIS VVRANGHAM, A. M. F. R. S. REV. SIR, fl WITH sincere pleasure I avail myself .of the present opportunity of inscrihing ato you a Translation of Strass’ Chart of ; Universal History, together with the fol- [lowing Pages which are intended to eluci- idate it, as a grateful, though inadequate treturnfor literary favours which you have fi conferred upon 1 E’ . " Your most obliged Servant, WILLIAM BELL. , . ' 4 , London, April, 1810. 6‘7fl9‘7‘9 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION. IT has been frequently and justly observed, that a translator should be almost enthusiastically enamour- ed with the beauties of his ori- ginal. In the present instance I . can truly say thatgnothing but a full conviction of the usefulness and simplicity of Strass’ Stream of Time could ever have induced me to present 'it in an English dress. ' I am happy to find this conviction fully sanctioned‘by public approval, as Well as by the concurrent testi- mony of judicious (and I may con- vi ADVERTISEMENT. scientiously add) of unbiassed cri- ticism. ln committing to the press, therefore, the fourth Edition of the following. pages, which serve to in- troducethis new Chart of History, I cannot refrain from indulging in the satisfaction I feel at the very general encouragement of this literary attempt, or from acknow- ledging my warmest thanks to the editors of the liggundermentioned re- views and periodical publications, ~ for their favourable opinion of its meritfié * Critical Review, June, 1810. British Critic, May, 1812: Literary Panorama, Nov. 1810. Classical Journal, Sept. 1811. / Monthly Review, April, 1811. W I ADVERTISEMENT. vii Notwithstanding this acknow— ledgement, should any future edi- tion of the plates themselves appear necessary, Ishall still conceive my- self at liberty to reject or accept. , of the hints thrown out in these various decisions, as my own judg- ‘ ment of the spirit and genius of a general Chart Would suggest, 5 without servilely following any par- ticular set of opinions. As a mere translator, I must stand acquitted of any charge of vanity towards myself] although I should always in such a case more readily dare to appear ostentatious, than to, deserve by neglect the charge of ingratitude. ' Should the present pages ever viii ADVERTISEMENT. be able to pierce the formidable barrier which our “inveterate ene- my” has opposed to all communi— cation with the Continent, the ve- nerable Author Will find in them a pleasing index, and, perhaps, his only voucher, that his historical labours have been favourably re- ceived, and indulgently commend- ed by a nation amongst WhiCh foreign merit is frequently met by envy, or at best by languid appro— bation. ,, . THE TRANSLATOR. " IIULL, August, 1812. PREFACE. THOUGH fully aware of the hazard in- curred by presenting the STREAM OF TIME to a Public, who are already in posses- sion of the Clironol'ogies of Usher, Blair, and Priestley, I am still induced to flatter myself that the attempt will prove neither superfluous nor uninteresting. For, not- withstanding. the acknowledged accuracy displayed by the above authors, it is pre- sumed, that the plan of the present Chart is such as to unite every advantage result- ing from their labours withmany others peculiar to itself; by which combination - its utility; as aGuide to Historical Know- B 2 PREFACE. ledge, is rendered essentially superior to that which is to be derived from any preceding work upon the subject. Dr. Blair has wasted much room by allotting an equal space to each year throughout the Whole of his ChronOlogy, thus! extending his volume very incon- veniently for oceasional reference. The different events,.crowded into onecolumn on the side instead of being" referred to ‘ the people to which they more particu~. larly belong, become confused and doubt- ful. This defect is strikingly apparent in the two Divisions of ’W'arriors and ieamed Ellen,~ :whom the Student inhis- ' tory finds it very difficult to'connect with their respective. countries, and Which might have been easily obviated, by in-m serting the mere Initial of i the people ambugfih'om‘they flourished. Evelina: \‘M PREFACE. 3 copiousness, which is the most valuable feature of his work, is scarcely counter- i balanced by the disadvantage of having the attention continually distracted in referring from one page to the other. Dr. Priestley)“ by proceeding a step farther, and compressing the whole of the former work into. a single point of View, rendered an unquestionable assis— tance to the Chronological science. Nor need webe- surprised to find, that a few »* I do not intend to intimate here that the perform- ances, either of Dr. Blair, or Dr. Priestley, were the first on their respective plans; my purpose is merely to form a general conclusion on the merits of our exist- ing Charts of History, and Chronological Tables, by taking a comparative view of the method followed in one of each species, with which I was best acquainted, and Which stood 1n the g1eatest repute with my coun- try. Dr. Priestley borroWed his idea from a French original; the contents or matter, he extracted from that i “ elaborate, but unequal? w01k, the Universal His- tory .—-Sce the Introduction to his Chart of Biography. 112 4 PREFACE. _ of the minor requisites are sacrificed to this more essential point,1'o_r that many qualifications, necessary to form the per- fect Chart, are still wanting. As it is the province of the human mind, however, to advance in its researches, we ought not to rest satisfiediwith what is already ac-. complished, where any thing remains to be done :‘ though we may admire the genius which could make such a consi— derable advance toward the end in View, ' we must yet be allowed to amend what is evidently defective. Should I therefore object, in his performance, to the want of a consolidation of empire, and the con— . fusion resulting from that want; to the omission of names, ill supplied by the accompanying Description ; 'or to occasi- onal inaccuracies: let it not be attributed to any other motive, than to the desire of forming upon these imperfect analysations ., PREFACE. 5 a STANDARD, by which the merits of the work now offered to the Public may be adjudged, and at the same time of obtain- ing an opportunity of pointing out its peculiarities, and the grounds upon‘whiéh they are introduced. The equality of time throughout the whole,tan improvement of his own, which the learned Doctor/ingeniously defends, must prove in my opinion disadvanta— geous to every work of this nature, both from the necessity'of reducing them to a size convenient for occasional reference, and also from the confined scale on which the mechanical processes they undergo can be executed. Those periods, in which a greater number of important revolu— , tions actually took place, or whose less' ' remarkable events have been more'care— fully transmitted‘to us; those too, whose 6 PREFACE. recent impulse still/influences the com-6 plicated machine of European politics, seem to have a stronger claim to our attention, than the imperfect notices of either uninteresting, obscure, or remote occurrences: at the same time, by fur. nishing a greater variety cf incident, they naturally require more space for their figurative representation. Under these circumstances, two methods only remain of adhering to this principle, viz. either to reduce the more complex periods to a size barely adequate to those less impor- tant, or to enlarge the latter to the'dimenV— sions necessary for the former. By the , first plan, we must sac’rifice‘many inte; restingdetails ; by the latter, the Work is immoderately augmented for use, and enhanced in eXpense. Neither "does the contrary method ape PREFACE. 7 ‘ pear So likely to mislead the reader as its learned opposer suggests; the imagina- tion is constantly checked in its flight by the horizontal or secular lines drawn across the Chart, which perspicuously point Out- the actual duration of each em- pire. The small figures also, which are invariably prefixed to every certain event, by increasing the precision of the Whole, completely remove ‘the objection. The inconvenience of the equisecular Chart 1 will indeed be readily perceived, if we suppose its-principle adopted in. the pre~ sent instance, and every, century“ from the Era of the Creation «occupying an equal - portion. of the paper. ‘Taking them even atthe medium size'of those, which I, have made: use of, to What length. Would the whole be spun out; and, how "unwieldy in bulk, and distorted in appearance- Would it become, when ‘ contrasted with. 8 PREFACE. the symmetrical proportions of the pre~ , sent Chart! 7 _ ,. ' a , However natural it may be to assist the perceptive faculty, in its assumption of? abstract time, by the idea, of a line, and . however inseparable the sensible and . mental objects may have become by the 3 figurative method of speech; it is asto~- nishing that upon this near advance, and . With similar. assistance from the delicate 3 preciseness of language, the image of at Stream should not have presented itself ;' ‘to any one, whose consideration had l‘ been attracted to this 1 object“ The ex-f -‘ pressions of gliding, and rolling on; or ' of the rapid currentapplied to time, are 2 equally familiar to us with these of long: ‘ and short. Neither does it require any ' great discernment to trace, as a farther“ exemplification of this assertion, in/ the: PREFACE. , , 9 rise and fall of empire, an allusion to the source of a river, and to the increasing rapidity of its currents, in proportion with the declivity of their channels towards the engulphing ocean. Nay, this meta- phor, by presenting something more con- genial to a common object of sense, and at the same time more agreeable in its Variations to the nature of the abstract notion, gives greater liveliness to the ideas, and impresses events more forcibly [upon the mind, than the stifl‘ regularity of the straight line. Its diversified power likewise of separating the various currents into subordinate branches, or, of uniting / them into one vast oceanof power ;5 of ‘ dispersing them a second time, but still in such a manner that they are always ready under- the guidance of Some great conqueror to converge again into one pOint, tends to render the idea by its 0 10 PREFACE. beauty more attractiVe, by its simplicity ' more perspicuous, and by its resemblance , more consistent. Obvious as this must appear, the idea . seems to have been first carried into exe- . cution with singular felicity by Mr. F.’ Strass, Professor of History to ‘the- royal corps of Cadets at Berlin. In a small pamphletf‘ attached to his Chart, he gives some account of the reasons, which 9* My first intention was to have translated this pamphlet as an Introduction to the present work ; but upon farther consideration it appeared adviseable to incorporate the most essential of Mr. Strass’ remarks with my own, as the greater part of his publication is occupied by a revision of similar works little known in this country, and by defending himself against any future charge of plagiarism, which he is particularly solicitous to avoid. A few of his last pages are dedi4 cated to a cursory review of General History; but this is so extremely abridged, and will be found so much better executed in all our approved works on History, that I deemed it superfluous. PREFACE. ll induced him to publish it. One of them seems very similar to that assigned by Dr. Priestley ; the intention of benefiting in the study of History his young pupils at the Academy of Klosterbergen near Magdeburg, of which he was the Direc- tor when this work first appeared, con- ceiving it, as he declares,* the duty of . every one whose situation calls him to the invention of methods for smoothing the rugged path of science, to submit his ideas to the opinion of the Public, and to rest his hopes of success upon their candour and impartiality. With the diffidence natural to merit, he speaks of his work 9" Gleichwohl scheint es,———als ob jeder, dem es Pflicht ist in irgend einem F ache des menschlichen Wissens auf Verminderung der Schwierigkeiten zu denken, die Mittel, welche er ge'funden zu haben glaubt, der o'fi‘entlichen Priifung zu unterwerfen, und sich dabei auf den Wunsch einschranken miisse, billige \und erleuchtete Richter zu finden. 02 l2 PREFACE. in the ‘mo'St uhaSsunling a manner, and Wishes it to be cOnsidered only as an int- perfect sketch, or primary hint, for others more competent to follow up and com— plete; 'How far this was 11ec€ssary, When the original destination of the work is considered, I must also beg leave to sub- mit to the, aetiter discernment of other critics. ’ ’ DESCRIPTION OF THE STREAM OF TIME. IN the work, now offered to the Public under the above title, as a Chart of History, upon a principle hitherto unattempted, .an image has been chosen for the figurative Representation of Universal Political History, which seemed to allow the most varied and natural method of sensibly depicturing' the! various revolutibns of empire. ' All nations, whose. achievements of military prowess, \or whose cultivation of the less splendid virtues have been transmitted to our knowledge, appear under the form of va- ’ . .. a a n _¢ ‘ , nous Streams, Wthh umte, dlvrde, or separate" 14 DESCRIPTION OF THE themselves into numberless subdivisions, accord-l. ingly as the countries, they respectively repre.:. sent, underwent similar changes. A slightt acquaintance only with the plan of the Chart is '3 necessary to enable any one to comprehend l readily every 1emarkable occurrence in the his- - tory of a nation, chronologically arranged, from 1 its first foundation to the beginning of the nine- - teenth century; and to form, from a comparison of it with all contemporary states, a distinct idea. of its relative rank and importance. We observe the early settlement of a fugitive colony on a distant shore; its petty struggles, perhaps for ages, with the neighbouring clans ; its gradual advance to strength and eminence, and, after it has passed the zenith of its great ness, its enervation by luxury, with its conse- quent fall and final disappearance from the rank R of nations. The succession of its monarchs ’ and the internal changes in its executive power pass With equal-facility in review before us: we,- easily ascertain the commencement, duration, STREAM OF TIME. 15 and end cf the government of each prince; his royal contemporaries on the great theatre of action; every remarkable subject, who distin- guished his reign, or extended his authority; and every considerable discovery, which tended to promote the advantage of his country, or the benefit of mankind. In short, we are en- . abled to determine the principal events, and the i _ relative situation or strength of every kingdom in every century, and almost in every individual year, with greater accuracy than from a much longer study of the best historians. . . It was not deemed necessary to attend in every instance to the actual disposition of they different nations on the face of the globe, be- Cause a Map was not the end in View, and also because a strict adherence to this plan would have been incompatible with that political in- fluence, which it is the great object of this 'Chartto illustrate. This, it will be granted, is l by no means confined to neighbouring terri- tories, but frequently extends itself over distant 16 DESCRIPTION OF THE states.——Rome’s triple triumph over Carthage, the unavailing conquests of Justinian in Africa and Italy, or the loss and acquisition of colonial power in modern periods, could never have been represented on the present principle, shackled by too close an attention to geogra- phical position. This indeed seems to have been the principal cause of that intricacy and _ confusion, with which every reader must be struck upon the first View of Dr. Priestley’s Chart. He observes, in different parts of it, various patches of a similar colour, which his fancy must combine, before any correct idea of the powerful dominion of the people collec- tively represented by them can be formed. Geography ought always to form. a solid basis, before we attempt the superstructure of History; for whatever we build without this precaution, must be necessarily both weak and transitory. Some .attentiOn to it therefore, I trust, will be consideredby‘ every .tutor.as. a. necessary preparationtothestudy of this Chart, ‘ sr'eEAM or TIME. 17 without which it must be but imperfectly, com. prehended. The great advantage in this work is the com. bination of Biographical with General History, which has never, I believe, hitherto been at- tempted on so comprehensive a scale. Sovereign princes, or the heads of government in each state, are the personages principally noticed; though many of them might often have been superseded by more illustrious characters; but as the history of the sovereign is too commonly identified with that of the people whom' he represents, and as the Chronology was intended to be incorporated with the Chart, it was judged unadvisable to deviate from the original, other. wise than by the occasional‘insertion of heroes, 85c. pre-eminently entitled to our attention, where the necessary space" remained unoccus pied. The distinguishing, of individuals, cele- brated for their public or private virtues, by a Variation of size or type, will greatly illustrate the biographical part of the plan, and: may fare D . 18 DESCRIPTION OF THE ther exercise a moral influence over the mind of the student, which will assuredly not be the less effectual because it is imperceptible. That the political greatness of a nation should be attended to, rather than its territorial exten- sion, is a principle generally admitted as best suited to works of this nature: its adoption, therefore, in. this instance, is noticed merely to preclude misconstruction. Horizontal lines, carried across the Chart, limit the duration of every century. Where the» width of the Stream and the distance of the unoccupied spaces rendered it difi‘icult for the eye to combine the detached portions of those lines, their connection has been‘marked by a faint and broken continuation. This is parti- cularly the case with the Roman Empire at the period of Its all- but universal monarchy. The centurial or secular dates I haVe distin. guished from the rest of the figures by a larger character. STREAM or TIME. 19 0f the remainder of the marginal figures, those next in size denote perfected centuries in their respective eras; those of the first size referring, as I have just observed, to the per. fected centuries of the two eras adopted in the body of the Chart; namely, the Creation, and the birth of Christ. These are accompanied in the other columns by corresponding dates, re. ferred to other epochslof' considerable, though not of equal importance. For this purpose the smaller figures are introduced, which will enable any one with little trouble to adapt the chronological system of this Chart to that of any other with which he may wish to have it compared. For example, among the early colonists of ancient Greece, we find Cecrops arriving from Egypt, and conducted to a per- manent settlement in Attica: the date 26, before his name, must be taken in "conjunction. ‘ with‘the secularnumber at either end of the- { horizontal line immediately above: this we shall !find _ to be 2400, whence we obtain the true :date of the event. in question, viz. 2426 years 1. safter the-creation Of the world. D 2 2O _ DESCRIPTION 01“ THE To explain the mutual harmony of the dates, let us refer to a period less remote. Having fixed by the above method the commencement of the Persian monarchy under Cyrus at the year of the world 3431, to find the correspond- ing date in other“ calculations. By the side of 3430 in the margin we find the year of Christ 554; whence, by deducting one from the years)" preceding the Christian era, because the com- putation is here carried on in a contrary direc- tion (decreasing proportionally with the increase (if all the rest), we gain the true result, 553. If With theT rapid arrival of this monarchy at the summit- of its greatness, we wish to compare the‘-slow,'buit surer progress of infant Rome, as single glance5upon the" next column informs us, that this eVent happened in the ZOISt year after the‘foiriidation of that city. .With equal facility weal-dimmer that it synchronises with that pence! ofG’recian‘ History,'when‘Pisistratus, haVing trampled on the patriotic institutions of 801011, held his countrymen in despotic sub~ jééfion, in the fourth year of the fifty-sixth Olympiad. " . tug; :3 ;;..,(.;‘_'-:‘: 'zf. STREAM, OF TIME. 21 The Olympiads, however, not being calcu— lated by full centuries, are expressed by the third, or smallest sized figures, as the introduc- ‘ tion of a fourth might have caused considerable confusion and perplexity. This method of com- puting time, adopted throughout the greatest part of Greece, was taken from the number of Olympic games celebrated every fourth year in honour of Jupiter at Olympia, a‘ town of Elis, the calculation commencing from their revival by Iphitus,‘ before Christ 776. Thus, for in. stance, the Incarnation » took place, as it is generally thought, in the very year of the 194th recurrence of these games, or (in the technical phrase) in the first year of the.194th. Olympiad. A comma. separates the number of the Olym- ’ piad from the number of years. since 'its last celebration." - _ What I have hitherto observed concerns only the figures in’ the margin. Upon the». subject ‘ -of' thuse nontained 1‘inthe“ body of the work, whichfix the: precisfidate of any particular event, whenthat event falls upon the even. can; 22 DESCRIPTION OF " THE tury, a small cypher is prefixed, although the exact coincidence of the word with the horiL zontal line might perhaps have been suflicient. In other cases the prefixed" figuresare, as 'I have already directed, to be added to the com- plete, hundreds immediately preceding On either side. ' By this exemplification of the analogy be— tween time and space, another important pro- perty has been gained fer the Chart, of which the author has frequently availed himself, par- ticularly in the fabulous regions of mythology , and tradition. Events which, from the contra-l dictory testimonies, of antiquity, may be re. garded as; uncertain, “may. be placed in .a plau-r sible situation without the invidiousness of" a positive decision. Events likewise of continuity, or such as occupied a considerable portion. of time, are often expressed upon the Chart-by a. perpendicular reading, as in :Egypt the building . of Thebes, and Memphis... Fer alsimilarrreaSOH, . theterection offlthos‘efspleudid, menuni‘ents 0f ( I» human industry, the “Pyramids andrthe Obelisks, STREAM or TIME. 23 are distributed among the various periods to which different writers have asCribed their origin. Dates prefixed to events, signify their com- mencement, and to royal names, 8w. their acces- sion to the sovereignty. The duration of a war, or any similar circumstance, implying a con- nected series 0f transactions, is frequently expressed by the words, until, to, &c. with the date of its conclusion. An event, influencing the fortunes of two or more nations, is extended to them all by a dispersion of” the words,‘by ' which it is usually designated. or this descrip- tion are the ArgOnautic Expedition, and the Peloponesian War in ancient times; and at a later peiiod, the devastations of the Northern War in Russia and Sweden. That Out of the multitude of epochs, which have been adopted 1n various ages and nations, 'i Mr. Strass has selected the most important Will, , I believe, be readily conceded: for, whether ’ / 24: DESCRIPTION OF THE we consult the classic historians of Greece and Italy, or the pages of modern writers, we shall always be able to‘follow each in his owncalcu- iation, by attending to the above simple direc- tions. The eras of the Deluge, of Moses, 820. gm. crowd without utility, and perplex without certainty, the pages of many similar attempts. Had the limits of the. work indeed admitted its farther extension, the Julian period, . from its general utility, would have had the next claim to our attention. Mr. Strass, 1n the original, has exclusively referred his computa- tion of events, subsequent to the Incarnation, to the birth of Christ : the insertion, however, of the Hegira or Mahommedan era might, I thought, prove not unacceptable to the many modern cuitivators of Oriental science. From the prevalence of fable and romance in the re‘r'notest periods "of antiquity, that portion of history has been omitted which precedes the hrchnary limitations of Grecian and Egyptian mythology , or rather (to express myself more ‘9‘ STREAM OF TIME; 25 conformably to the symbol adopted in my Chart), it is Still there, “ But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.” ' ADfiISON. In other respects, the Chronological System of . Petavius, a learned Jesuit of the seventeenth century, has, with almost religious exactness, been followed'both by Mr. Strass and myself?“ i x *1 Denys Petau, or Dionysius Petavius (as, according to the scholastic method of that period, he is generally denomi- nated), was born at Orleans, 1583, and uniting to an exten- sive genius, the most assiduousr application and the cultivation - of an acquaintance with the greatest scholars of his time‘, had made such progress in the various sciences, that at the age of nineteen he was called to fill the philosophical chair in the University of Bourges. After having distinguished himself by a variety of learned and controversial performances, he was admitted into the Society of Jesuits in 1605, and died at Paris in 1652, at the age of sixty-nine years, after a life Spent in defence of the Roman Catholic religion, to which he was zealously attached. His principal Work was a System of Chronology, under the title of Ratzanan'um Temporum, comprising a critical 1nv estigation of Universal History down £01632; which was reprinted, with additions and a conti- nuation, at Geneva, in 1720, and afterwards at Leyden in‘ 1724, in two volumes, octavo; the second consisting chiefly cf extensive genealogical tables, and chronological series of ' sovereigns, pupes, councils, and schisms. ’ E , . 26 DESCRIPTION or 'THE , To assign reasons for e'Verydeviation, or eVen merely to enumerate them, would far exceed the bounds which ‘I have prescribed to this In- troduction. " As the way, however, in which one of the principal eras, the birth of Christ, is designated, may perhaps to many appear obscure, _I shall just remark, that for the sake of greater general utility, Mr. Strass has adopted the commOn date 3984 years after the Creation, though-inhis- apprehension this eventwould more accurately he placed five years. earlier, in 3979. In the department of Inventions and Disco- veries I have oenerally placed implicit reliance on the authority of Mr. Strass. Its primary periods are evidently devoted to a plaus1ble-hy- I pothesis on the progress of mankind toward civilization. From a miserable noma’dism they proceed to the occupation of agriculture and commerce, to the formation of civil society, the _. discrimmatlon of private property, and to the baneful inventions of ofi‘ensive weapons, as in! dividuals seek by them a substitute for the fruits of honest industry, To repel these lawless en— . .‘STREAM or TIME.- - 27 eroachments recourse is had to defensive means, until the incorporation of the smaller societies into an aggregate state, and the power thence accruing to the executive government, gives I the greater energy to the arm of justice, and establishes on a solid basis—the rights. of personal security and private property. That in this part of his labours (Mr. Strass has been rather partial to the exertions of his own countrymen in the several arts, may be readily supposed. Conceiving it, however, not only venial but laudable in every one to pay a par- ticular regard to, the circumstances Of his own natiOn, I have not scrupled occasionally to in- troduce subjects, having only a' mediate refer- ence to the general benefitof’ mankind through the progress of the English constitution toward perfection; as it cannOt be denied, thatthe improvements in this great model of a civil con- stitution ought to be a matter of interest to every one who regards with reverence alsocial community established with the least possible infringement on the natural liberties of mankind E 2 28 DESCRIPTION on THE Some French works upon this subject have been crowded to a troublesome. excess with \ emblems and hieroglyphics. Aware of this" inconvenience, Mr. Stress has wholly rejected them, with two exceptions, which are so sim-. ple as scarcely to deserve the title. The first, a monumental cross, is used to signify that the, person, to whose name it is affixed, died at the period referred to: as in the instance of Cicero, forty-three years before the Christian Era. The other, a Couple of crossed swords, denotes a battle: the points turned upward imply that it was won: turned downward, they. indicate the reverse. The arrows denote, by the position of their barbed end, the influx or egress of the- smaller streams, as in geographical maps they mark upon 'a similar plan the course of a river;. From'the extreme pressure of important facts, in some particular periods, occasional abbre~ viations were found unavoidable; they are, however, introduced as Sparingly as possible, and are in a great measure- cd‘nfined to the Words coaqucr and restore, with “their various: 4 /L&AML§'M(.A""1-.t «.4 x. ..«_ A STREAM or TIME. 29 inflections. In a succession of similar names likewise in the same column, this privilege has occasionally been resorted to, as in the Antio» chuses of Syria, the Popes, &c. The brackets, by which many names are clasped together, are used as marks of uncer. tainty or distinction. The first is their most common signification in the remotest periods of the Chart, when either the actual existence of the person, or the period of that eXistence, has been called in question. Such are the series of Assyrian Princes, whom Herodotus adduces as the successors of Ninyas; and the Kings whom Some represent as having goVerned Latium be- ’ fore the birth of Romulus. As the dates of events become more ascertainable and precise, ' this mark assumes more generally its second use, of distinguishing any eminent hero, statesman, or philosopher from the general lists of sove- reigns, ‘ * The junction of. Hungary and Bohemia with a ‘ the German Empire, upon the accession .of‘the’ 30 ' DESCRIPTION or THE House of Austria to the imperial dignity,- can only be misunderstood by such as are wholly destitute of historical knowledge. Although ~ nominally distinct sovereignties, and governed by different laws and constitutions, the heredig tary dominions of this house have always thrown such an important weight into the balance, in every contest carried on by the Germanic body, as to be intimately connected with its interests, and to form a real and permanent additionoto, , .3 its power. The same alliances were from this, period naturally entered into: the same wars, carried on with united resources, were con- » eluded by the same peace; and the conquests of each tended invariably to their common- aggrandizement. To have represented them, therefore, as separated from the real Germanic body, would only have exhibited a neighbour: ‘ ing parallel stream, with an irksome repetition of the same monarchs, the same dates, and the same transactions. ;: The Electorate ofi Brandenburgh seemed ide- serving of peculiar notice,._eve_n at, its-source, ’ M samba-2.2.7.1 "flu... ‘L. ~a STREAM OF TIME." 3f "on account of the importance and splendor of the monarchy, which, under the creative genius of Frederick the Great, subsequently issued from it. A list of its Electors therefore is given, from their first investment with those lands which till lately they held* as fiefs of the Empire, in a manner more consonantiL with the * This, though it latterly degenerated into me1e form, was undoubtedly the theory of the German Union, according to the letter of the constitution, before its late dismember- ment and re-appearance newly modelled, under the title of the Rhine~Confederation. 'f To give a true representation of the Germanic Body by the ingenious symbol of Mr. Strass, would perhaps be almost impracticable, even if the enlargement of the scale were such as to supply the necessary room. In addition to'its intricate and numerous revolutions, to exhibit its different parts as independent powers, and at the same time to show them acting together as one body to one end, acknowledging- the same laws, and governed by a common sovereign, would- imply at least no trifling difiiculty. The Achaean League in Ancient History presents a somewhat similar, but less in- superable obstacle. As it was, however, more loosely con-. . nected, and no sooner founded than disjointed again by internal faction and treachery, before its constitution was enabled to gain vigour from duration, or amendment from experience, an attempt has been made to illustrate its union by a faint separation of the different states which, taken collectively, represent the political importance of their body; at that period. This method, in the present instance, would 32 DESCRIPTION on THE nature of the thing itself, than with the mode "of representation adopted throughout, the other parts of the work. This method is continued‘ while the Electors merely claim our notice as _ powerful members of a general union ;. but when, by the marriage of John Sigismund with the heiress of Ducal Prussia, this rising state acquires, with the accession of'foreign territory, separate interests and connections, it imm‘edi-V ately makes its appearance as an independent state; though still partly in form a portion of the German Empire, and in reality borne down by the overgrown power of the House of Austria. ' During the great PapalSchism, as it is termed, the rival Pontifl's are separately noticed, and be neither sufliciently clear nor perceptible for the frequent revolutiOns 1n the Germanic body. In addition to the intri- cacy of the subject, Mr. Strass has assigned its importance as a second reason for omitting every other than a general notice of his native country. It deserves, he thinks, too highly a particular elucidation as to be here partially inter- polated, and gives his readers every reason to hope at some future peiiod for the application of his present idea to this subject STREAM OF TIME. 33 divided from each other by a dotted line. In the same manner likewise I have attempted to delineate the present struggle‘for the Spanish Peninsula. Having thus endeavoured to point out the general intention of Mr. Strass’ Chart, to ex- plain its uses, and to display its peculiarities, a few words will suffice for my own additions. To particularise, however, each individual ‘ amendment which Mr. Strass allows must doubt- less be necessary in so extensive a work, would be tedious and uninteresting. It might also ap- ‘ pear perhaps to many as an invidious display of error, purposely brought into View to evince the difficulty of the task, or to gain greater merit from its performance than the mere introduction of a useful foreign work to my countrymen deseyes. One of the mdst important of them is a greater attention to English History than ap- peared necessary for the purposes of a conti- ‘ nental publiCation. '_With a View to this object, F 34' DESCRIPTION OF THE I have made some small contraction in, the neighbouring columns, to give Scotland a higher degree of antiquity than the period of Robert Bruce, to which it is limited in, the original. I then, with regret, found myself entirely defi- cient in the space necessary for a similar display of Ireland and Wales, as their insertion would have rendered a complete disarrangement of Mr. Strass’ present happy order unavoidable. The additional Era of the Hegira I have al- ready noticed corresponding with. the column of years after Christ, in the same manner which Mr. Strass has used before that period, and which I have already explained. Lastly, the continuation of the work.from 1800 down to 1810, is wholly mine; as the time . of its publication abroad did not allow thehorigi- nal author an opportunity of extending it far- I ther than the former period? A short space is left :fo‘rgthe introduction of any great events, which may, occur in the two STREAM. or TIME. 35 succeeding decenniums; and indeed from the probable instability of the present state of things, the whole might have been left equally blank with the original." In this case its com- pletion would have been undertaken optionally by the purchaser, either immediately, or when a general and stable peace might have put an end to the present afflicting contest, and settled, the discordant interests of the rival powers upon a permanent basis. Considered, however, as a succinct review of the principal revolutions which this period, eventful beyond all former precedent, affords, some notice of them upon a new principle, might, I thought, prove not uri- - satisfactory to those whose occupations have not afforded them sufiicient leisure for the collection of the requisite data, or whose youthful capaci- ties may not accurately enough have entered .into the merits of the performance to be equal to the task. . , , THE END. 1 1 WM JOSEPH SIMMONS, Printer, Queen—Street, HULL, GERMAN LITERATURE, BY THE AUTHOR OF THE FOREGOING PAGES.‘ This Day was published, _ Printed from a German Type, Demy lemo. Price Seven Shillings, EDiz HDetttstljc flfilumenleez: Ein angenehemes and niitzlz'ckes Lesebuch fiir Geiibterc .- BEING A SELECTION OF PIECES IN PROSE AND VERSE, FROM THE MOST APPROVED WORKS 0F GERMAN WRITERS. O , ----.1--—— ', “ Mr. Bell has evinced much good sense and judgment in the choice ‘ of the pieces of which this Volume is composed. They are well cal» culated to improve the Student in the knowledge of the German idiom, and at the same time to interest him during the perusal. The materials of this Anthology have been selected from the best German literati.” Critical Review, August 1810. “ The utility of Epitomes, like the present, is sufficiently estab- lished. The only consideration is, whether the Selection is tasteful and judicious; embracing that which is at once the most generally useful and elegant in the German language, and arranged analogous to the progress of the mind in acquiring a knowledge of foreign lan- guages. This merit we are inclined to attribute to lhe Editor, Mr. Bell, who appears to have proceeded very naturally from easy Tales, or Pieces in Prose and Verse, to Dramatic, Comic, and Epic Poetry. From the moral Gellert and Zimmermann he has plucked some of his German flowers, and the interesting Campe’ s HistOry of the Discovery , ofAmericahas not escaped this literaiy apis. . .................................-... The Editor thinks that this little Volume, at a time when it is almost impossible to procure Geri man books, will furnish an agreeable relaxation to thosdflvho have already attained a competent knowledge of the language, and who. . may wish only to refresh their memories with some of the more select compositions. In this expectation we do not apprehend that he will be disappointed.” Antzjacobin Review, Vol. XXX V page 463. Appendix. See also Monthly Review, May 1811. Published by T. BooseY, No. 4, Old Broad Street , and sold by all Booksellers throughout the Kingdom. " A 10‘ 2 University of Pennsylvania Libraries www.1ibra_ry.upenn.edu Circulation Department 11 / 215-89847556- ‘ « mnummummuIItilifluflmfilfiflmfiuflmumlmmwu N/llfiB/UEHEH/Elusx m