Vlll PBEFACE. 



the course of the book is equally true ; nay, this has been 

 made a charge against it, as if I was at liberty to write the 

 history of my own times, nay, of transactions in many of 

 which I had borne a forward part, and not show what my 

 own sentiments had been on those very affairs. But if my 

 opinions were not sacrificed to the fear that I might offend 

 the living by speaking plainly of the dead, so neither were 

 truth and justice ever sacrificed to those opinions. 



The Statesmen of George the Third's age having thus 

 formed the subject of the volumes first published, I then 

 gave a more full and elaborate view of the Learned Men 

 who flourished in the same period. In my opinion, these, 

 the teachers of the age, covered it with still greater glory 

 than it drew from the Statesmen and the Warriors who 

 ruled its affairs. It was necessary to enter much more into 

 detail here than in the other branch of the work, because 

 a mere general description of scientific or of literary merit 

 is of exceedingly little value, conveying no distinct or pre- 

 cise idea of the subject sought to be explained. It appeared 

 the more necessary to discuss these matters minutely, 

 because upon some of them much prejudice prevailed, and 

 no attempt had hitherto been made to examine them com- 

 pletely, or even impartially. Of this a remarkable example 

 is afforded by the want of anything that deserves the name 

 of a Life of Voltaire, and by the great prejudices, both 

 favourable and unfavourable to him, which, among different 

 classes, exist on the subject. But it must also be observed 

 that Dr. Black's discoveries have been far from attaining 

 the reputation which they so well deserve as the foundation 

 of modern chemistry ; and justice to this illustrious philo- 

 sopher required that the consequences arising from his 

 modesty and his great indifference to fame should be coun- 

 teracted by a full history of his scientific labours, comparing 

 the state of the science as he found it with that in which 



