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PREFACE.
ix
I am aware that, on the other hand, the reproach of Fatalism is justly incurred by those, who, like
the writers of a certain school in a neighbouring country, recognise in history nothing more than a
series of necessary phenomena, which follow inevitably one upon the other. But when, in this work,
I speak of probabilities, I speak of human probabilities only. When I speak of Cause and Effect, I speak of those general laws only by which we perceive the sequence of human affairs to be usually regulated; and in which we recognise emphatically the wisdom and power of the Supreme Lawgiver, the Design of the Designer.
Mitre Court Chambers, Temple,
June 26, 1851.
