any one of these memorable events unless we look at it in connection with those which preceded, and with those which followed it.  Each of those great and ever-memorable struggles, Saxon against Norman, Villein against Lord, Protestant against Papist, Roundhead against Cavalier, Dissenter against Churchman, Manchester against Old Sarum, was, in its own order and season, a struggle, on the result of which were staked the dearest interests of the human race; and every man who, in the contest which, in his time, divided our country, distinguished himself on the right side, is entitled to our gratitude and respect.

Whatever the editor of this book may think, those persons who estimate most correctly the value of the improvements which have recently been made in our institutions are precisely the persons who are least disposed to speak slightingly of what was done in 1688.  Such men consider the Revolution as a reform, imperfect indeed, but still most beneficial to the English people and to the human race, as a reform, which has been the fruitful parent of reforms, as a reform, the happy effects of which are at this moment felt, not only throughout Our own country, but in half the monarchies of Europe, and in the depth of the forests of Ohio.  We shall be pardoned, we hope, if we call the attention of our readers to the causes and to the consequences of that great event.

We said that the history of England is the history of progress; and, when we take a comprehensive view of it, it is so.  But, when examined in small separate portions, it way with more propriety be called a history of actions and reactions.  We have often thought that the motion of the public mind in our country resembles that of the sea when the tide is rising.  Each successive wave rushes forward, breaks, and rolls back; but the great flood is steadily coming in.  A person who looked on the waters only for a moment might fancy that they were retiring.  A person who looked on them only for five minutes might fancy that they were rushing capriciously to and fro.  But when he keeps his eye on them for a quarter of an hour, and sees one seamark disappear after another, it is impossible for him to doubt of the general direction in which the ocean is moved.  Just such has been the course of events in England.  In the history of the national mind, which is, in truth, the history of the nation, we must carefully distinguish between that recoil which regularly follows every advance and a great general ebb.  If we take short intervals, if we compare 1640 and 1660, 1680 and 1685, 1708 and 1712, 1782 and 1794, we find a retrogression.  But if we take centuries, if, for example, we compare 1794 with 1660 or with 1685, we cannot doubt in which direction society is proceeding.

The interval which elapsed between the Restoration and the Revolution naturally divides itself into three periods.  The first extends from 1660 to 1678, the second from 1678 to 1681, the third from 1681 to 1688.