Excerpt from A Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. 1 of 2: In Two Volumes, Containing a Sketch of the Revolutions and Improvements in Science, Arts, and Literature During That Period Hence the close of one year, and the commence ment of another, are generally marked by mutual: congratulations, by a peculiar train of reflections, by new plans and undertakings, and by charac teristic changes in domestic, social, and political affairs. It is a period which intereststhe feelings, and constitutes a prominent point in the life of almost every man. 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.