The Works of Sir William Temple Bart Author:William Temple Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine tangit Humanos animos.——— PREFACE. I Have often complained that s... more »o ancient and noble a nation as ours, so renowned by the fame of their arms and exploits abroad, so applauded and envied for their wise and happy institutions at home, so flourishing in arts and learning, and so adorned by excellent writers in other kinds, should not yet have produced one good or approved general history of England. That of France has been composed with great industry by Des Serres; with judgment and candor by Mezeray. That of Spain, with great diligence and eloquent style, by Mariana. That of the Empire, with much pains and good order, as well as learning, by Pedro de Mexia: but ours have been written by such mean and vulgar authors, so tedious in their relations, or rather collections, so injudicious in the choice of what was fit to be told, or to be let alone, with so little order, and in so wretched a style, that as it is a shame to be ignorant in the affairs of our own country, so it is hardly worth the time or pains to be informed ; since for that end, a man must read over a library, rather than a book ; and, after all, must be content to forget more than he remembers. 'Tis true, some parcels or short periods of our history have been left us by persons of great worth and learning, much honoured or esteemed in their times ; as, part of Edward IV. and Richard III. by Sir Thomas Moor; Henry VII. by Sir Francis Bacon ; Henry VIII. by the lord Herbert; Edward VI. by Sir John Hay wood ; and Queen Elizabeth,by Mr. Camden. There are, besides these, many. voluminous authors of antient times in Latin, and of modern in English, with some foreigners, as Froissart and Polidore Virgil; out of all which might be...« less