I am not ignorant that many persons have executed long ago, either in the whole or in part, a work of the same kind with mine; and I shall, in its proper place, do justice to their diligence[1]. But as the volume which I now offer to the public relates to a subject which these Authors have treated either very superficially, or not at all; I shall here, in a few words, give my reasons why, at setting out, I have followed a plan somewhat different from theirs.
To run cursorily over a number of events, unconnected and void of circumstances, without being able to penetrate into their true causes; to see people, princes, conquerors and legislators succeed one another rapidly upon the stage, without knowing any thing of their real character, manner of thinking, or of the spirit which animated them, this is to have only the skeleton of History; this is meerly to behold a parcel of dark and obscure shadows, instead of living and conversing with real men. For this reason I have all along resolved not to meddle with the body of the Danish History, till I have presented my Readers with a sketch of the manners and genius of the first inhabitants of Denmark. But I imagined, like those who have preceded me in this attempt, that a few pages would have sufficed for illustrating the most essential of these points; nor was it, till I had examined this matter with new attention, that I discovered my mistake. I then found, that too much brevity would defeat the end I proposed, which was to place my subject in different points of view, all of them equally new and interesting.
- ↑ Our Author probably alludes to a former history of Denmark in the French Language, (dedicated to the present King's grandfather, K. Frederick IV,) intitled, “L’Histoire de Dannemarc avant et depuis l’Etablissement de la Monarchie: Par Mr. J. B. Des Roches, Escuyer, Conseiller et Avocat General du Roi Tr. Chr. au Bureau des Finances et Chambre du Domaine de la Generalité de la Rochelle.” Amst. 1730. 6 Vol. 12mo. To this work is prefixed a Preface Historique pour servir d’Introduction a l’Histoire de Dannemarc; which contains a tolerable display of the Northern Antiquities, &c.
