Sethos: History or Life Taken from the Private Monuments of Ancient Egypt

PREFACE.

losophy, through the knowledge it
provides of human passions and prejudices
The original French "préventions" refers to preconceived notions or biases that cloud human judgment.. It is considered the surest
guide for politics, by the experience
of all the centuries that it can place
within a single man. Finally, some
regard it as a great foundation of moral
instructions, by the continuous examples
of good and evil that it provides.
    But in relation to this last
property, I believe that in examining
the matter closely, one will find His-
tory far inferior to Fiction; when
the latter is employed in the only
manner that suits a wise Writer,
that is to say, with the intention
of shaping morals morals: The French "mœurs" encompasses a person's character, manners, and ethical conduct within society.. His-
tory is in itself only a heap of facts
that Providence leads to ends usually
hidden: and although everything is
marvelously ordered within the
mysterious views of Divine wisdom
and justice; the sequence of human
actions is

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