XX PREFACE. 



incapable of taking his share in the heart- 

 felt pleasure, with which he has heard 

 these associates of the field recounting, 

 with reciprocal delight, their thrice-told 

 tales of triumph; dwelling with rapture 

 on the exemplary virtues of a Cato, or the 

 unshaken firmness of a Brutus ; and pur- 

 suing through an eloquent detail of slaugh- 

 ter, the renovated glories of some fortunate 

 campaign. Much, however, as he may 

 have been made to perceive his own infe- 

 riority upon these occasions, it is with 

 somewhat of more serious concern (for 

 alas! these harmless transports will be 

 heard no more), that he has now to con- 

 template his deficiencies on the subject: 

 and it is no more than the truth to acknow- 

 ledge, that in the midst of the material* 

 which compose not a few of the following 

 pages, he has found himself very much in 

 the situation of a man editing a book in 

 an unknown tongue : in which tongue, with 

 an assurance only of the fidelity with which 

 the matter, as far as he has found it com- 

 pleted, is now given, and not without the 

 necessary probatum est from the deeper 



