Let. g. A Plan for a General History &c. 3o3

Jliare in if, tliey inform mankind by halves, andneither give nnich instruction, nor create muchattention. France abounds vvith vvriters of tliisfort, and, I think, vve sali into the other extreme.Let me tell you, on this occasion, vvhat has some-times corne into my thoughts.

Ihere is hardly any century in history whichbegan by opening fo gréât a scene, as the centurywherein \ve live, and lhall I suppose, die. Com-pare it with cthers, even the most íamous, andyou vvill think fo. I vvill sketch the two last, tohelp you r memory.

The lofs of that balance which Laurence ofMedicis had preserved, dnring his tiine, in italy ;the expédition of Charles the eighth to Naples;the intrigues of the duke of Milan, who spun,with ail the refinements of art, that net whereinhe vvas taken at last hinifelf ; the íuccessful dexterityof Ferdinand the Catholic , who built one piliarof the Austrian greatness in Spain , in Italy , andin the Indies; as the succession cf the houle ofBurgundy, joined to the Impérial dignity and thehereditary countries, establifhed another in theupper and lower Germany : these causes, and mar.yothers, combined to form a very extraordinaryconjuncture; and, by their conséquences, to renderthe sixteenth century fruitsui of gréât events, andof astonisliing révolutions.

The beginning of the seventeenth opened ctilla greater and more important scene. Tire Spaniíhyoke was west-nigh imposed on Italy by theíamous triumvirate, Toledo at Milan. Gssuna