What to read after The History of France?

The great encouragement this work has met with, having made it necessary to hring forward a new edition, the Author has taken the opportunity of making many corrections and improvements in it, and also of adding recent events, so as to continue the history to the present time.

In the composition of the Historical Library, the author has made it a main object to narrate the principal facts of history in such a clear and simple manner, as to bring them at once within the comprehension of the rising generation, without destroying that interest which is suited to readers of a more advanced age; great care has also been taken throughout the whole work, to avoid, as much as possible, too tedious a detail of wars and politics, which only serve to confuse and fatigue, without interesting, the youthful mind. There is much in history to delight as well as to instruct; and as these volumes are written for the amusement and instruction of those who desire to know something about the world they live in, the political history of each state is combined with an account of its progress in the arts of civilisation, its natural productions, the social habits of its people at different periods, and all that is most useful and entertaining with regard to. their customs, manners, laws, and government.

In the early times of the Roman empire, the greater part of Europe was uncivilised. England was peopled by different tribes of barbarians, as were also Germany and all the more northerly countries; while France, the subject of these pages, and known at that time by the name of Gaul, was covered with thick forests, and inhabited by a bold race of people, whose chief attention was directed to warfare, and the preservation of their own liberty. Their arts were few and simple, and they were quite unacquainted with the elegancies of life; but they possessed that capability of improvement which God has given to man to raise him above all other living creatures. By reading history, we learn how these improvements have come to pass, and how the wide deserts of the earth have gradually become jicopled by intelligent, ingenious, and wealthy nations. Surely these are facts with which all young persons must feel a desire to become acquainted; and the writer of these pages ventures to uxsure them, they will find the history of a country, and its people, quite as amusing as any fictitious tale, and far more interesting, because it is true.