History of England Author:William Grimshaw 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: JPREFAUK THE opinion of those gentlemen who examined the manuscript of my revised edition of Goldsmith's Roman History, having been confirmed by its very favo... more »urable reception when published, I have complied with their wishes in a further undertaking. They advised, that I should either correct and free from its impurities the History of England, by the same author, or compose one, in accordance with the present taste. To the former task, I was most inclined; for two reasons— the popular attachment to a long established work, without reference to its author; and the universal celebrity of Goldsmith, from the greatness of his genius. To supersede a favourite book, is to deprive the public of a venerated acquaintance: to enter the lists against a favourite name, is to combat the powerful bias of education, and the natural infirmity of man. Having therefore intended the revisal of Goldsmith's History of England for the use of schools, I commenced a critical examination of its contents. Had it been no further defective than his History of Rome, the attempt might have been accomplished, with satisfaction to myself, and advantage to the public. But objections accumulated in my progress. To the faults attending all the historical compositions of Goldsmith, owing to confusion, indelicacy, and grammatical inaccuracy, there was added another obstacle; most momentous indeed, and insurmountable—thi absence of material events. His Roman History, I conceived, was sufficiently comprehensive. From what cause, then, proceeded this unexpected vacuity ?—The account of his writings gave me satisfactory explanation. I there found, what I had indeed suspected, but what is little known—that his History of England was not abridged by the Doctor himself; but that public credulity has been made thi ...« less