AE 813725 •K51 TO THE MOST NOBLE WILLIAM HENRY CAVENDISH, DUKE OF PORTLAND, LORD PRESIDENT OF HIS MAJESTY'S COUNCIL, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD ELDON, HIGH STEWARD OF THE UNIVERSITY; THE REVEREND MICHAEL MARLOW, D. D. PRESIDENT OF ST. JOHN'S college, AND VICE-CHANCELLOR ; AND TO THE OTHER RIGHT REVEREND AND REVEREND THE HEADS AND GOVERNors of colleges and hALLS IN OXFORD, THE FOLLOWING WORK IS WITH THEIR PERMISSION RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THEIR OBEDIENT SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. 1 PREFACE. THE following Work contains the fubftance of a Courfe of Lectures, which I have occafionally read to my pupils during the laft twelve years. The fatisfaction which they expreffed on hearing them has encouraged me to hope, that they will not prove unacceptable to thofe, for whofe ufe they are now made public. To affert a claim to originality in fuch a work as this would perhaps only be equivalent to a confeffion of its demerit. My pretenfions to public regard muft depend in no fmall degree upon the manner in which I have clothed old ideas in a new drefs, and upon my fkill in compreffing within a moderate compafs the fubftance of large and voluminous works. Upon all my fubjects I have endeavoured to reflect light from every quarter which my reading would afford. My references, and the books mentioned in my Appendix, will fhow the fources from which I have derived my principal information; but it would be almost an endiefs, aud perhaps a very oftentatious task, to enumeratę all my literary obligations. There are a few topics indeed, with refpect to which I think I may be allowed to affert fome claims to novelty. For many. of my remarks on the Greek Language I am indebted principally to my own obfervations upon its nature and comparative merits; the Hiftory of Chivalry, important as the influence of that remarkable inftitution has been upon manners, is a fubject upon which I have not been able to collect much information from English Authors; and the Hiftory of the Revival of Claffical Learning, although a topic of the strongest intereft to every man of letters, has never been fully treated by any writer, with whofe works I am acquainted. Many of my Quotations are felected from fuch works, as, either from their fize, number of vo lumes, or fearcenefs, do not frequently come within the reach of young men. If fome of them are borrowed from more obvious and popular works, their peculiar beauty, ftrength, and appofitenefs, it is prefumed, will justify their introduction. But elegant as my quotations may be in point of style, conclufive as to reafoning, or ftriking as to the impreffion they are calculated to make; they will not completely anfwer the intended purpofe, if, while they raife a high opinion of the merit of their authors, they do not excite an eager curiofity to perufe more of their works. If I fhould be fortunate enough to fucceed in procuring for eminent writers any additional degree of |