PREFACE. IN N presenting to the Public the fruits of a favorite study, I cannot offer as the apology for any defects of the present Work, the haste with which it has been written. It is the gradual result of the application of the leisure hours of several years to a subject that has interested me from my youth: and I know too well the intellectual improvements and general talents of that British Public, whose early history and progress I have endeavoured to elucidate, not to be sensible, that to obtain its approbation in the nineteenth century, no common labor, no supine attention, will suffice. But the attainments of every individual, whatever may be his wishes, are circumscribed within bounds which, though others may easily overpass, he will never be able to exceed. That an Author should perform the task he undertakes to the full extent of his abilities, the Public has a right to exact. Less exertion than this would be a negligence bordering on disrespect. More, is im possible. In the discharge of this duty, I am not |