OF RELIGION, LANGUAGE, AND MANNERS; OF MEN EMINENT FOR THEIR VIRTUE OR THEIR LEARNING; THEIR PATRIOTISM, ELOQUENCE, OR PHILOSOPHICAL STEREOTYPE EDITION, CAREFULLY REVISED, AND ACCOMPANIED BY A BOOK OF EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, TO WIT: BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-first day (L. S.) of August, in the forty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1820, William Grimshaw, of the said District, hath deposited in this Office the Title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words follow ing, to wit: "History of England, from the first invasion by Julius Cæsar, to "the accession of George the Fourth, in eighteen hundred and twenty: comprising every political event worthy of remembrance: a progressive view of religion, language, and manners; of men eminent for their virtue, or their learning; their patriotism, eloquence, or philosophical research; of the introduction of manufactures, and "of colonial establishments. With an interrogative index, for the use of schools, by William Grimshaw, author of a history of the "United States, &c." 66 In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entituled "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned."-And also to the Act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an act, entitled, 'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the Arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the The interrogative index, mentioned in the title-page, (the form of which, to preserve the copy-right, cannot be altered,) is Low omitted. PREFACE. THE opinion of those gentlemen who examined the manuscript of my revised edition of Goldsmith's Roman History, having been confirmed by its very favourable reception when published, I have complied with their wishes in a further undertaking. They advised, that I should either correct and free from its impurities the History of England, by the same author, or compose one, in accordance with the present taste. To the former task, I was most inclined; for two reasonsthe popular attachment to a long established work, without reference to its author; and the universal celebrity of Goldsmith, from the greatness of his genius. To supersede a favourite book, is to deprive the public of a venerated acquaintance: to enter the lists against a favourite name, is to combat the powerful bias of education, and the natural infirmity of man. Having therefore intended the revisal of Goldsmith's History of England for the use of schools, I commenced a critical examination of its contents. Had it been no further defective than his History of Rome, the attempt might have been accomplished, with satisfaction to myself, and advantage to the public. But objections accumulated in my progress. To the faults attending all the historical compositions of Goldsmith, owing to confusion, indelicacy, and grammatical inaccuracy, there was added another obstacle; most momentous indeed, and insurmountable-the absence of material events. His Roman History, I conceived, was sufficiently comprehensive. From what cause, then, proceeded this unexpected vacuity?—The account of his writings gave me satisfactory explanation. I there found, what I had indeed suspected, but what is little known-that his History of England was not abridged by the Doctor himself; but that public credulity has been made the instrument of an egregious fraud: a fraud, equally injurious to the memory of a much respected individual, and the important purposes of useful education. The design of revising Goldsmith's history was, in consequence, abandoned, and this original work written in its place. Few writers have excelled Goldsmith, in readiness of wit, in elegance, in facility of composition. Few have experienced more trials of distress; the effects of unbounded generosity, or of unguarded simplicity. "Whilst he was composing the comedy of the 'Good Natured Man,' and preparing to take a more successful flight in his fine poem of the Deserted Village,' he wrote, for present support, at the instance of the booksellers, a series of histories, which he never considered as conducive to his fame. These were, his Roman History, in two volumes, an Abridgment of the same, and his History of England; which are of ten superficial and inaccurate."-So, says his biographer. Thus, whilst he poured forth, with unexampled rapidity, those imperfect productions of the hand, his mind laboured, with unwearied assiduity, in acquiring for the name of Goldsmith a posthumous renown; and the effort was accomplished. That name will long be cherished:-after the graven marble, the friendly tribute to departed genius, has, for ages, crumbled into dust, the monument which he himself had raised, will still remain, uninjured and admired. In forming a work of this kind, there are chiefly three objects to be kept in view-a judicious selection of important events, a moderate interspersion of amusement, and occasional reflections, which may guard the reader against the imitation of vice, or inculcate the love of virtue. The narrative should not be exhausted on the infidelity of a queen, or the erection of a scaffold; upon the protracted siege, or the countermarching of an army: entertainment should be free from ribaldry, and praise should be withheld from the commission of enormity. When we have wearied the reader with the minute recital of a fictitious plot, we should look back, lest we have omitted the Fire of London:* we should consider, that a story may be humorous yet offensive, and avoid recommending intrigues and virtues as joint recommendations to a throne.† A book designed for elementary instruction, should inculcate no doctrines foreign to the relations of the reader. Principles, favourable to the support of a constitutional monarchy, though they may be very excusable in England, should not be instilled into the youth of the United States. Such expressions as our most gracious majesty," and "we, his most loving subjects," are totally absurd, and *Reign of Charles II. in Goldsmith's Abridged History. +Harold, in the same. |