Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci
Lectorem delectando pariterque monende. HORACE.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

G. AND W, B. WHITTAKER,

AVE-MARIA-LANE.

I APPREHEND that Prefaces, wherever they may be placed in a book, are for the most part, with respect to the works themselves, Postscripts; that is to say, written after the completion of the undertaking, whatever it may be as to this, my own Preface, I freely acknowledge it to be a postscript, and am indeed, anxious that it should be received as such, though I venture, according to custom, to place it where it is. For I had much rather have it supposed, that what I now put into the hands of my readers, was written without any settled plan or design, and has imperceptibly swelled to the size it has attained,