A Philosopher May Deplore The Eternal Discords

This Variety Of Objects Will Suspend, For Some Time, The Course Of The Narrative; But The Interruption Will Be Censured Only By Those Readers Who Are Insensible To The Importance Of Laws And Manners, While They Peruse, With Eager Curiosity, The Transient Intrigues Of A Court, Or The Accidental Event Of A Battle.

Pleasure And Guilt Are Synonymous Terms In The Language Of The Monks, And They Discovered, By Experience, That Rigid Fasts, And Abstemious Diet, Are The Most Effectual Preservatives Against The Impure Desires Of The Flesh.

[the] Events By Which The Fate Of Nations Is Not Materially Changed, Leave A Faint Impression On The Page Of History, And The Patience Of The Reader Would Be Exhausted By The Repetition Of The Same Hostilities [between Rome And Persia], Undertaken Without Cause, Prosecuted Without Glory, And Terminated Without Effect.

[in] The National And Religious Conflict Of The [byzantine And Saracen] Empires, Peace Was Without Confidence, And War Without Mercy.

Genius May Anticipate The Season Of Maturity; But In The Education Of A People, As In That Of An Individual, Memory Must Be Exercised, Before The Powers Of Reason And Fancy Can Be Expanded: Nor May The Artist Hope To Equal Or Surpass, Till He Has Learned To Imitate, The Works Of His Predecessors.