PREFACE.
Some of the Learned have been very severe upon such works as we now lay before the Public. Their severity would have been just, if such works had been recommended or used to the exclusion of more important studies. Those who aspire to a solid erudition, must undoubtedly take other methods to acquire it. They have their labour and their merit. But there are readers of another order, who must not be left wholly unprovided: For such readers, it is our province to collect matters of a lighter nature; but pleasing even by their levity; by their variety; and their aptitude to enter into common conversation. Things of this sort often gradually and imperceptibly
insinuate a taste of knowledge, and in some
A 2
