PREFACE

TO THE

EIGHTH EDITION.

THE following Work contains the substance of a Course of Lectures, which the Author occafionally read to his Pupils. The fatisfaction they expreffed in hearing them, encouraged him to hope, that they would not prove unacceptable to thofe Readers for whose use they were published. He has not been disappointed in his expectation; and the favourable reception which his Work has met with from the Public at large, and particularly from feveral Perfons of acknowledged abilities and experience in the business of Education, whofe names he would be proud, but is not permitted to mention, has encouraged him to make improvements in every fucceeding Edition, and especially in the present.

The Lift of Books has been carefully attended to; and he has endeavoured to make it as comprehenfive as his Plan would allow, from a defire to sketch fuch a profpect of the best Publications as may be pleafing to every inquirer into the various branches of useful and entertaining Literature.

In

In drawing up the Lift of Claffics, the Author has been indebted for fome ufeful hints to feveral diftinguished Scholars of the Univerfities both of Oxford and Cambridge; but he is precluded by their diffidence from making them fuch explicit public acknowledgements as he conceives to be juftly their due with refpect however to one lamented Friend he is no longer under any fuch reftriction.-The late Richard Porfon, Profeffor of Greek in the Univerfity of Cambridge, was originally confulted as to this part of the Work, he communicated fome valuable hints to render it more complete, and expreffed his opinion that it would be very ufeful.

If the praife of the Author of this Work could extend the fame of fuch a man as PORSON, he would be happy to dedicate many pages to a subject so copious, and fo deeply interefting to his feelings of regard and efteem; but far more able panegyrifts will doubtless appreciate his merits, both as a critic and a scholar. The Author of this work had the happiness to enjoy his confidential acquaintance for nearly twenty years, during which time he had abundant opportunities of remarking his acute and vigorous understanding, his very accurate learning, his almost supernatural memory; and the kind, the ready, and the unoftentatious manner, in which he conveyed information to all who expreffed a defire to receive it from him. He furnished an eminent example of the acquirement, and the advantages of general knowledge; for whatever fubject, in any degree connected with the wide range of his studies

was

was suggested in converfation, even by intelligent perfons, he could illuftrate it with so much information, and carry it to fuch an extent, as to surprise, delight, and inftruct, all the company around him. As fome of his friends from the inoft honourable regard to his memory have caufed a Buft to be modelled to perpetuate his likenefs, let me, animated as I feel myself by the fame fentiments of regret for his lofs, be allowed in this public manner to express my conviction of his merit, and my acknowledgements for his kindness.

To lay claim to originality of subject in fuch a Work as the prefent, in order to recommend it to notice, would prove the unfitnefs of the Author for the task he has undertaken, and be a presumptuous and vain attempt to impose upon the good fenfe of his Readers. His pretenfions to public regard must in a great measure depend, not on the novelty of his materials, but upon his judgment in selecting, and his skill in compreffing within a moderate compass, the substance of larger and more voluminous works; and upon the manner in which he has clothed old ideas in a new drefs. Upon all his fubjects, he has endeavoured to reflect light from every quarter which his reading and obfervation have afforded to him.

We happily live at a time when we may congratulate the rifing generation on the new establishments made for the advancement of knowledge,

and

and the additional means adopted for the diffufion of a tafte for literature and science. The Academy at Sandhurst for Military Students, that erected near Hertford, for those young men who are defigned for the civil fervice in India, and Downing College now building at Cambridge, promise to anfwer the excellent purposes of their refpective founders. The Royal Institution in London engages the fair and the fashionable in the cause of polite Literature and Science; and the high reputation it has acquired, has promoted fimilar establishments in other parts of the Metropolis. Thus the talents and the attainments of eminent Profeffors are called into action; their labours are adapted to the peculiar occupations for which young men are intended, and the curiofity of the public at large is gratified to a degree unprecedented in former times, by the diffufion of various kinds of knowledge.

It was lately the boaft of our Gallic neighbours, that they were not prevented by the occupations of war, from giving encouragement to learning and fcience. If they continue their attention to fuch laudable objects, it fhould be our ambition, poffeffed as we are of fuch ample means of information, as our celebrated univerfities and fchools, aided by recent institutions, afford us, to meet them in the field of intellectual competition, in order to prove both to them and to the reft of the world, our right to pre-eminence in the Republic of Letters, and in every branch of useful knowledge, fimilar to that we