PREFACE. 



It is with pleasure that I feel myself in a position — 

 although after some inevitable delay — to place before the 

 public the present work. Its author, unfortunately, did 

 not live to altogether complete his researches ; still less 

 to give the results of them to the world with that 

 precision and accuracy which would have satisfied 

 him ; and the want can now never be supplied. It was, 

 indeed, in a great measure, the conscientious care with 

 which he sought information upon every doubtful point, 

 even when apparently only trifling, and the zeal with 

 which he investigated every accessible record of the 

 past that he thought could throw even the most 

 partial light upon the subject of his investigations, 

 which, more than any other cause, prevented him 

 from seeing this book published in his lifetime. And 

 this will be found, I fear, to be a loss to others 

 besides himself; for in the case of a work of this 

 kind — dealing, as it does, with many undecided ques- 

 tions, upon some of which great differences of opinion 

 exist — it is a double misfortune when the author does 

 not live to complete and to publish it himself. First, 

 because it has not been in his power thoroughly to 

 reconsider, with the whole before his eyes, what he 

 has asserted ; to weigh again objections, and to clear up 



