sometimes run; but it has at all times been moving onward. If in any one point it has gone backward, it has been only in order to leap forward in some other. The work was to commence with a Numeration Table, or Catalogue raisonnè, of these virtues or qualities, which make a man happy in himself, and which conduce to the happiness of those about him, in a greater or lesser sphere of agency. The degree and the frequency, in which each of these virtues manifested themselves, in the successive reigns from William the Conqueror inclusive, were to be illustrated by apposite quotations, from the works of contemporary writers, not only of historians and chroniclers, but of the poets, romance-writers, and theologians; not omitting the correspondence between literary men, the laws and regulations civil and ecclesiastical, and whatever records the industry of antiquarians have brought to light in their provincial, municipal and monastic his-
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