Book Description

Excerpt from The History of the World, Vol. 2 of 4: From the Earliest Period to the Year of Our Lord 1783, With Particular Reference to the Affairs of Europe and Her Colonies Whence came that intellectual spirit, which dwells in man, and whither does it depart; that spirit, which measures the distances of the heavenly spheres; which resolves the apparently simple elements of Nature; which embraces the knowledge of all past time; governs the opinions and destinies of nations; and exercises a powerful influence on remote futurity? Man has stolen the lightning from the heavens; he has gained a dominion over the sea; he has measured the paths of comets, and traversed the lofty regions of the air; and yet, who is he? Whence is his origin, and what is the end of his being? To these inquiries, our senses make no reply. Abstract and metaphysical arguments, without end, have been devised, repeated, and compared; some more complete, others, less perfect; and yet, no result appears to be more certain, than that all is yet involved in doubt. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.