Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/103

 ¬ CHAPTER VIII. ¬In uhkh Moreen points out to the Author some additional Causes of the Rcxolutionary War with Capetia. ¬" Materials for the annals of nations are diffi- cult to be obtained ; they are often secret, and are fugitive even when they can be traced. Histories, therefore, when written at distant periods, except when they are built upon contem- porary information, judiciously selected by eminent men of letters, cannot but be erroneous. — This very period, involving the interests of almost all nations, most strikingly illustrates this truth. — It depended upon the combination of so many circumstances, that, without being a predesti- narian, I am almost puzzled otherwise to ac- count for them. ¬" The astonishing events which are soon to close my narrative, could not, upon any human calculation, (at least in my opinion,) have hap- pened ¬