Page:Massachusetts Historical Society series 3 volume 7.djvu/10



common remark, that no nation can trace so readily and accurately its origin, as ours, has been grounded, no doubt, on the consideration of the progress of European society at the time our country was discovered. The three centuries and a half, which have now nearly elapsed since that period, have formed, comparatively, times of light, and mutual influence, in the history of mankind. By printing, extended navigation, and commercial treaties, the nations have apparently approximated each other; and it would seem, that, even of necessity, the history of each must be recorded and known.

But, in fact, the preservation of the particulars involved in the progress of any people, is a distinct and definite labor for some individual, or association, appropriately devoted to the subject. Official documents must, indeed in civilized nations, exist; but these are necessarily meagre and restricted, or formal and uninteresting: and the historian is compelled to gather his materials from a wide surface, and to welcome the intelligence derived 1