First Sentence

"It may be that our readers, whose memories hardly go back beyond the Restoration, will be surprised at the large frame in which we enclose the picture that we are about to place before their eyes, embracing something more than two centuries and a half; but everything has its precedent, every river its source, every volcano its internal fire; from 1551 to 1815, on that portion of the earth's surface to which we direct our attention, the pendulum swung constantly from one side to the other, action was followed by reaction, vengeance by reprisals; and the religious annals of the South are nothing more than a double entry ledger kept by fanaticism with death, with the blood of Protestants entered on one side, and of Catholics on the other."