AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1640."

TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM HAZLITT.

VOLUME I.

NEW YORK:

D APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY.

PHILADELPHIA:

GEO, S. APPLETON, 164 CHESNUT STREET

M DCCC L.

PREFACE

TO THE

THIRD AMERICAN EDITION.

THE adoption of this work as a text-book by numerous in. stitutions, and the demand for a third edition within so short a period, indicate the favorable estimation in which it is held in this country.

In complying with the request of the publishers to superintend the present edition, the editor has seen fit to add a few notes, which, if of no value to the accomplished historical scholar, may perhaps be of some use to the younger student. He takes this occasion to offer a few observations on the study of history, and on the use which he conceives may be made of works like the present.

The study of history is a necessary part of a thorough education. Aside from its more immediate practical advantages, a full and familiar knowledge of history is requisite to the most liberal cultivation of the mind. Accordingly, the study of history has always had a place in the course of instruction pursued in our higher institutions.

Precisely here, however, lies a serious difficulty. History is not, like many of the other studies prescribed in such a course, a science whose leading principles can be systematically exhibited within a moderate compass, and of which a complete elementary knowledge can be imparted within a limited time. There is, properly speaking, no short road to a competent knowledge of history. For any valuable purpose