Disraeli, Isaac (1766-1848)

A Dissertation on Anecdotes

London

Printed for C. and G. Kearsley, and J. Murray

1793

"We are more interested in the progress of the human mind, than in that of empires."

History itself derives some of it's most agreeable instructions from a skilful introduction of anecdotes. We should not now dwell with anxiety on a dull chronicle of the reigns of monarchs; a parish register might prove more interesting. We are not now solicitous of attending to battles, which have ceased to alarm; to sieges, which can destroy none of our towns; and to storms, which can never burst upon our shores. We turn with disgust from fictions told without the grace of fable, and from truths uninteresting as fables told without grace.* Our hearts have learnt to sympathise; and we consult the annals of history, as a son and a brother would turn over his domestic memoirs. We read history, not to indulge the frivolous inquisitiveness of a dull antiquary, but to explore into the causes of the miseries and the prosperities of our country. We are more interested in the progress of the human mind, than in that of empires.
(pp. 4-5)

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A Dissertation on Anecdotes; by the Author of Curiosities of Literature. (London: Printed for C. and G. Kearsley, and J. Murray, 1793). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>

04/29/2014