Excerpt from Lectures, Vol. 1 of 2: On the History of France

My dear Sir,

I should be sorely embarrassed if it were necessary for me, in dedicating this book to you, to attempt an imitation of that lapidary style in which Dryden and his contemporaries were accustomed to lay their works at the feet of their patrons. I could with almost equal ease present myself at your hospitable lodge at Trinity, in a coat embroidered like that in which Dryden, when in statu pupillari there, may have waited on the Master of his days. Perhaps, indeed, neither our language, nor our appearance, has really been improved by the exchange of the habits of our ancestors for those now in use amongst us.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.