ΤΟ THE REVEREND SAMUEL ANDREW, M.A. HEAD MASTER OF THE ORDNANCE SCHOOL, CARSHALTON, THIS ABRIDGMENT OF FRENCH HISTORY IS, BY PERMISSION, Inscribed, AS A SMALL BUT SINCERE TRIBUTE TO HIS UNWEARIED EXERTIONS IN THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION, AND AS A MARK OF FRIENDSHIP AND ESTEEM, BY THE EDITOR. PREFACE. In the compilation of this History of France, the Author has had chiefly in view the wants and capacities of the young. Though many events, which would have found a place in a larger work, have of necessity been passed over, care has been taken to omit nothing that is really essential to the unity of the history,—while several circumstances, in themselves apparently unimportant, have been introduced to illustrate the manners and customs of the French at different periods, and to render their history an entertaining as well as an instructive study. The Author has also endeavoured to trace the influence exercised over the people by religion and learning; with the view of showing that, as they became enlightened, so they became better; and that the greatest crimes belonged to the periods of ignorance, barbarism, and infidelity. He is, therefore, not without hope that by these means the young A S student of French history will be enabled to gather such particulars as may furnish him with a knowledge of its leading features, and encourage him, with advancing age, to seek in larger works for more minute and detailed information. February, 1849. |