THE

METHOD

OF

TEACHING and STUDYING

THE

BELLES LETTRES,

OR

An Introduction to LANGUAGES, POETRY,
RHETORIC, HISTORY, MORAL
PHILOSOPHY, PHYSICKS, &c.

WITH

Reflections on TASTE; and Inftructions with
regard to the ELOQUENCE of the PULPIT,
the BAR, and the STAGE.

The whole illuftrated with Paffages from the most
Famous POETS and ORATORS, antient and mo-
dern, with Critical Remarks on them.

Defigned more particularly for STUDENTS in
the UNIVERSITIES.

By Mr. ROLLIN, late Principal of the University of
Paris, now Profeffor of Eloquence in the Royal College,
and Member of the Royal Academy of Infcriptions and
Belles Lettres.

Tranflated from the French.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

Printed for A. BETTESWORTH and C. HITCH, at the Red-
Lyon in Pater-nofter Row. MDCCXXXIV.

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

DAVIS

I

T is not without reafon that Hiftory has been ever look'd upon as the light of ages, the depository of events, the faithful witnefs of truth, the fource of prudence and good counfel, and the rule of conduct and manners. Confined without it to the bounds of the age and country wherein we live, and fhut up in the narrow circle of fuch branches of knowledge as are peculiar to us, and within the limits of our own private reflexions b, we remain ever in a kind of infancy, which leaves us ftrangers to the reft of the world, and profoundly ignorant of all that has gone before us, or even now furrounds us. • What is the small number of VOL. III.

* Historia teftis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriæ, magiftra vitæ, nuncia vetuftatis. Cic. lib. 2. de Orat. n. 36.

Nefcire quid antea quam natus fis acciderit, id eft femper effe puerum, Cic. in Orat. n. 120.

Terram hanc cum po

B

years,