[the Monks'] Minds Were Inaccessible To Reason

Corruption, The Most Infallible Symptom Of Constitutional Liberty, Was Successfully Practised; Honours, Gifts, And Immunities Were Offered And Accepted As The Price Of An Episcopal Vote; And The Condemnation Of The Alexandrian Primate Was Artfully Represented As The Only Measure Which Could Restore The Peace And Union Of The Catholic Church.

In A Distant Age And Climate, The Tragic Scene Of The Death Of Hosein Will Awaken The Sympathy Of The Coldest Reader.

The Subject, However Various And Important, Has Already Been So Frequently, So Ably, And So Successfully Discussed, That It Is Now Grown Familiar To The Reader, And Difficult To The Writer.

I Will Not Dissemble The First Emotions Of Joy On The Recovery Of My Freedom, And, Perhaps, The Establishment Of My Fame. But My Pride Was Soon Humbled, And A Sober Melancholy Was Spread Over My Mind, By The Idea That I Had Taken An Everlasting Leave Of An Old And Agreeable Companion, And That Whatsoever Might Be The Future Date Of My History, The Life Of The Historian Must Be Short And Precarious.

Our Ignorance Is God; What We Know Is Science.