Would I had fallen upon those happier days, COWPER. Nor can the Muse the gallant SIDNEY pass, THOMSON. Sir PHILIP SIDNEY and Mr. Hooker (in different matters) grew great masters of wit and language, and in whom all vigor of invention and strength of judgment met. BEN JONSON. EDITOR'S PREFACE. THE favorable reception given to the first volume of the "Library of Old English Prose Writers" having encouraged the publishers to proceed with the enterprise, the Editor has now the satisfaction of presenting a second volume of the work, and at the same time of announcing that it will be succeeded by others with all possible despatch. As some misapprehension has been found to exist in regard to the character which this publication will assume, the Editor wishes to have it distinctly understood that it is not designed to be a theological work. It is not intended exclusively or primarily for clergymen ; but for the lovers of good learning generally. Some of the pieces to be incorporated in the series will doubtless be from the pens of the old English divines; but they will be inserted not be. cause the authors of them were clergymen, but because they were among the most eloquent and beautiful writers in the language, and produced works that do not deserve to die. The Editor intends to draw freely from all the stores of old English prose, without reference to sect or profession. Not only the divine and the moralist, but the poet and the philosopher, the lawyer and the physician, the statesman and the warrior, will be laid under contribution to enhance the value and diversify the interest of the work. In reply to the question which has more than once been asked, How many volumes will the Library consist of? the Editor can only say that this is a point which the public must decide. The work may be continued as long as the materials hold out, and the interest or patience of its patrons remains unexhausted. He may, however, be permitted to state, that it is his intention to issue first the writings of those authors whose merits are less generally known, but whose claims to a place in such a collection as this, are incontestable; as one great object of the work is "to remember the forgotten, and attend to the neglected." Still no piece will be inserted merely because it is old or unknown; none will be inserted that is barely tolerable, or whose merits are a subject of dispute or doubt; none in short will be admitted that has not passed the ordeal of a severe and independent criticism, and been crowned with the concurring approbation of ages. The claims of Sir Philip Sidney and John Selden to a place in this Library, it is presumed no one will question. The "Defence of Poesy" is certainly one of the purest and most brilliant gems in the coronet of English literature; while the "Table-Talk," for its admirable good-sense, its shrewdness of remark, and its accurate delineation of men and manners, stands without an equal in the class of writings to which it belongs. The former of these treatises is here published entire; and the latter with the exception only of a few passages, in the whole not amounting to two pages, whose grossness of sentiment and expression rendered them inadmissible. The third volume of this Library will comprise the Miscellaneous Works of Sir Thomas Browne, an eminent physician and philosopher of the seventeenth century, and will include among other papers the whole of "The Religion of a Physician," and the treatise on "UrnBurial." A life of Browne was written by Dr. Johnson, and he has been justly characterized as the most extraordinary writer in the English language. The tracts abovementioned contain some of the most magnificent prose to be met with in any language. BOSTON, AUGUST 25, 1831, ALEXANDER YOUNG, |