9

ii PREFACE

from whom I have derived the materials
of this history; and I am still convinced
that the apparent ostentation would be
more than compensated by real life. If I
have renounced this idea; if I have declined
an undertaking which had obtained
the approbation of a master-artist *,
my excuse may be found in the extreme
difficulty of assigning a proper measure
to such a catalogue. A naked list of
names and editions would not be satisfactory
either to myself or my readers:
the characters of the principal Authors
of the Roman and Byzantine History,
have been occasionally connected with
the events which they describe; a more
copious and critical enquiry might indeed
deserve, but ot would demand, an
elaborate volume which might swell by
degrees into a general library of historical
writers. For the present I shall content
myself with renewing my serious
protestation, that I have always endeavoured

*See Dr. Robertson's Preface to his History of America.