The part shaded of a darkish colour, and growing gradually lighter at both edges, represent those centuries of ignorance which succeeded the fall of the Roman empire. [end of page #78]

At the bottom, on the part not stained, is a chronological list of events, inventions, and discoveries, connected with the subject.  Those which are not, however, important or curious, have no place.

The commerce of France, Britain, Russia, and America, are upon a true scale with respect to their proportional amount, as well as to their rise and progress.  The others are not, owing to want of documents; but, as before observed, the amount has very little to do with the subject; the business is to see how wealth and power were divided at any particular time, if they were rising or falling, or if they were at their height, comparing them with the manners of the people at the time.

This is the use of the chart, as to the representation of individual places and nations.

The general conclusion is, from taking the whole together, that wealth and power have never been long permanent in any place.  That they never have been renewed when once destroyed, though they have had rises and falls, and that they travel over the face of the earth, something like a caravan of merchants.  On their arrival, every thing is found green and fresh; while they remain all is bustle and abundance, and, when gone, all is left trampled down, barren, and bare.

This chart is a sort of a picture, intended to make those migrations and change of place distinct and easily conceived, on which the whole of this book has been occupied.  Being once acquainted with the changes that have taken place, we may more accurately compare them with the state of this country at the present time.  Those who will take the trouble to read Ferguson’s History of the Roman Republic, and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Empire, may form a judgement of the accuracy or inaccuracy of the chart.

EXAMPLE OF THE MANNER OF INSPECTING THE CHART.

To know when Rome was at the highest pitch of greatness, find, on the right hand, the space marked Roman empire:  then look between the lines for the highest part of the dark ground, and look immediately under for the year, it will be seen to be at the birth of Christ, that is, during the reign of Augustus; and by the same means it will be found declining gradually till the year 490. [end of page #79]

In like manner, Carthage will be found at the zenith of its power about 300 years before Christ.  The founding of Alexandria and the wars with Rome began then to diminish both its wealth and power.

It is intended by the author of this to execute a chart of the same sort on a very large scale, and assign to the different powers spaces proportioned to their importance, as nearly as he can ascertain.