Excerpt from The Historical Basis of Modern Europe (1760 1815): An Introductory Study to the General History of Europe in the Nine-Teenth Century The purpose of this work is to review in their logical connection the chief groups of events which form the groundwork of European history in the nineteenth century. Though historical in form, the book does not pretend to be a history, but aims only at presenting such a preliminary view of the immediate antecedents of modern civilisation as will supply a convenient, though of course arbitrary, basis for the study of our age. To effect this object, it has been necessary to abandon the usual artifice of bringing all history under the head of politics, and to distribute the subject in the following manner. The introductory chapter endeavours to indicate as summarily as possible the evils of the monarchi-co-feudal system in the eighteenth century, and the ideas of reform which were generated by the contemporary intellectual movement. 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.