The service we herein attempt is to portray the relations of the present to the past and future, by tracing all the mightiest elements of our civilization to their respective sources, and by indicating the antecedents of those national heroes whose names shine upon the forehead of our age, and whose accumulated productions constitute the grandest inheritance of the remotest posterity. The mighty princes of literature of all climes, "who still rule our spirits from their urns," are summoned into stately procession, followed by the great masters of art, science, philosophy, and religion, each one bearing his own distinct physiognomy, and taking precedence in historical order. It is in this natural course that we would mold numerous and diversified materials into one homogeneous whole. The work is an abbreviated nomenclature of celebrated personages and events, a bold sketch of the great historical ages, not divided according to arbitrary chronological dates, or a formal geographical plan, but embracing all authentic periods in their indissoluble continuity of development, illustrated by the multifarious monuments which it has successively produced and passed. The philosophy of history resides not in isolated events and detached facts, but flows without interruption down the lapse of ages, the accompaniment of human destiny, and the life of ennobling actions; at once penetrating all incidents, and perpetuating all progress. In the present undertaking, the author proposes in general terms to remind the reader of the various masterpieces which the past has bequeathed, rather than minutely to describe their authors, or criticise their merits. It is not our object to pronounce a judgment upon the characters and achievements of the great actors on the stage we survey, but simply to point out the manifest unity and advancement of the great drama as it proceeds. All minute details are omitted, in order to present as distinctly as possible the main outlines. As we contemplate the vast patrimony of knowledge, whence it came, and whither it leads, we watch the twilight on eastern hills as it brightens into midday, and then goes flooding over the broad expanse of the West. The consecutive series of historical events, though they transpire wide apart, and extend through a long lapse of ages, are never absolutely separated, but in the presence of the great Father are intimately joined in a sublime association, and mutually co-operate for the highest good of the greatest number. Different currents may seem to flow from the most diverse sources, and in opposite directions, but they are all tributaries to one centralizing channel, wherein flows forward forever the accumulating aggregate of human fortunes, under the divine control. A papal decree was once obtained condemning Galileo's doctrine touching the revolution of the earth; but that did not arrest pre-ordained planetary motion, nor prevent all sublunary beings from turning with it.