It is a Herculean task to write a good history; and the value of such a one cannot be overestimated. By history we learn what mankind have been and done in all past ages. By history the best men in every age and century of the world are set before us for our imitation, and the worst for our detestation. By history we learn how nations, empires, kingdoms, have arisen, flourished, decayed, and passed away. By history we become acquainted with the genius, laws, and customs of men who shone as stars in their generation; and behold, as in a mirror, the disposition, character, and talents which produced their virtue or their vice, and entitled them to the respect, veneration, and grateful remembrance of their successors, or made them a reproach to the end of the world. By history, too, we get a knowledge of how the arts and sciences arose, and how inventions were first arrived at, cultivated, and improved; and finally, as "history" but "repeats itself" in every age of the world, we see the finger of an Almighty Ruler presiding over the destiny of men, and ordering all things and events, so that, it must be visible to all, that He ruleth among the children of men, and showing that "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet riches to men of understanding."
From these characteristics of general history, the transition is natural and easy to the particular one before us. Having resided many years in Philadelphia, and become familiar with