Excerpt from History of France: From the Earliest Times to 1848 This book makes an attempt to furnish a readable account of the country with which we are in closest neighbourhood, and yet of whose history the generality of us know less than of that of almost any other kingdom. It aims at something higher than a mere epitome, for it founds itself on a great deal of various reading, and gives results more than abstracts. At the same time, it devotes sufficient space to any occurrences which seem to have a general bearing on the progress or character of the nation. But it does not profess to be very minute in its record of trifling or uninfluential occurrences, nor philosophic in searching out the causes of obscure events. If it gives new information to any youthful student, or induces him to search in other quarters for more, or if it recalls to maturer readers scenes and incidents they have nearly forgotten, one of the objects of the writer will be gained. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.