An Historical Display of the Effects of Physical and Moral Causes on the Character and Circumstances of Nations, etc

Front matter

AN HISTORICAL DISPLAY OF THE EFFECTS 01 PHYSICAL AND MORAL CAUSES ON THE Character anti Circumstances OF NATIONS : JTmr wrr V-Vl F*__V n:CL-Dl.\fi A <'O.M_.\UIS0N OK THE ANCIENTS AND MODr.KNS IX I. r.C. .'. 11 1> TO THEIR INTELLECT!.' AL AND SOCIAL STATE. BY JOHN BIGLAND, Author of " Letters on the Study of History," "History of Europe," &c. " The proper study of Mankind is Man." — Pope. LONDON: PRINTED FOB LONfiSIAN, HURST, BEES, 0BME, AND RROWN ; AND SHERWOOD, NEELT, AND JONES, PATERNOSTER-ROW; F. C. AND J BtVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S < 111 Rill YARD ; AND W. SHEABDOWN, DONCASTER. 1S16. W. SHEARDOWW, '.'.Inter, High-Street, Donctbter.

Preface

. In entering on the investigation of a subject so interesting as that which occupies the following pages, it would be useless to detain the reader on the threshold of inquiry ; for a good book seldom requires, and a worthless one never deserves a long preface. It may not, however, be amiss to premise, that in attempting to exhibit, in a luminous point of view, the causes which, in all ages, have influenced the state of nations, and produced their characteristic discriminations, the principles ad vanced by various aurhors, who have directly or indirectly treated these subjects, are here brought forward to distinct inspection. The materials which serve as the basis of this inquiry, are furnished by all that is known of human nature and social life. But the opinions

PREFACE.

. IV and assertions of historians, travellers, and political writers, being dispered through nu merous volumes, and often so much obscured by contradictions, that, without a critical ex amination, it is impossible to deduce from them any satisfactory conclusion, it is requisite to collect the scattered rays of light into a focus, in order to illumine one of the most interesting subjects of moral inquiry, — the nature and origin of those circumstances which occasion the diversity that is seen in the modifications of the human mind and the forms of national existence. The eternal laws which determine the intel lectual and social state of the different portions of the human species, have their existence in certain physical and moral causes, which, by their combinations or mutual counteraction, form the character and fix the destiny of nations.

The operations of these causes I have endeavoured to investigate, by ex amining the nature of man, and to illustrate by examples from ancient and modern history. The investigation of a subject so complex, might, indeed, have been extended to a much greater length ; but I have endeavoured to

PREFACE.

. V exhibit the whole series of argument and illustration in the most condensed form ; and instead of each train of reasoning being pursued to its last ramifications, something is left for the intellectual exercise of the reader, as the general principles which are advanced, will admit of an almost unlimited extent and variety of application. A comparison of the ancients and moderns will not be deemed an inappropriate conclusion to a work of tins nature ; and although the contrast is exhibited in a point of view very different from that in which it has been sometimes contemplated, judicious criticism will scarcely condemn the result of the discussion. On the whole it is presumed, that these considerations, on subjects so interesting, will not be found uniustructive or unentertaining to those who possess a taste for inquiry into the history of nations and of the human mind. VI