PREFACE. IX 



Even now, after all my care and revision, I am 

 not certain but I may be found similarly tripping — 

 to have expressed myself obscurely, when I fancied 

 my language most completely understandable by 

 the meanest capacity ; and I doubt that my familiar 

 style may frequently appear vulgar to more polished 

 eyes and ears than mine. But I take credit for 

 having avoided the use of technical phrases, terms 

 of science and learned dissertation, as well as the 

 crime of over-refinement with which I have re- 

 buked two cotemporaries, whose laughable subli- 

 mations are idealized at page 445. 



Candour and ability for the task are not always 

 found combined with willingness, even among our 

 best friends, to amend certain slips of the pen, or 

 to curtail such exuberances as the more animated 

 writers are liable to fall into ; and I am free to 

 aver, that the friendly assistance 1 obtained in this 

 respect, did not always second my plain meaning, 

 nor adequately fulfil my wishes, though I am grate- 

 ful for these and every act of kindness. After all 

 my care, repetitions have crept in, and owing to 

 the length of time occupied in the composition, or 

 rather the manner in which the various particles of 

 information were collected together, and digested 

 into form, great variety of style may be discovered, 

 though unity of purpose, and the desire to in- 



(1820.) Since then I observe that some one has intermeddled un- 

 worthily with that author, and spoiled his meaning, his arrange- 

 ment, and his simplicity. The second, third, and fourth editions of 

 that work are the best in all those respects. 



