Printed for T. DAVIES, in Ruffel-ftreet; BECKET and MDCCLXXL PREFACE. ROM the favourable reception FR given to my Abridgement of Roman History, published fome time fince, feveral friends, and others, whofe bufinefs leads them to confult the wants of the public, have been induced to suppose, that an English history written on the fame plan would be acceptable. It was their opinion that we still wanted a work of this kind, where the narrative, though very concife, is not totally without intereft, and the facts, though crowded, are yet diftinctly seen. The business of abridging the works of others has hitherto fallen to the lot of very dull men; and the art of blotting, which an eminent critic calls the moft difficult of all others, has been ufually VOL. I. A |