Excerpt from Elements of General Knowledge, Vol. 1 of 2: Introductory to Useful Books in the Principal Branches of Literature and Science, With Lists of the Most Approved Authors; Including the Best Editions of the Classics, Designed Chiefly for the Junior Students in the Universities, and the Higher Classes In The following Work contains the substance of a Course of Lectures, which I have occasionally read to my pupils during the last twelve years. The satisfaction which they expressed on hearing them has encouraged me to hope, that they will not prove unacceptable to those, for whole use they are now made public. To assert a claim to originality in such a work as this would perhaps only be equivalent to a confession of its demerit. My pretensions to public regard mull depend in no small degree upon the manner in which I have clothed old ideas in a new dress, and upon my skill in completing within a moderate compass the substance of large and voluminous works. Upon all my subjects I have endeavoured to reflect light from every quarter which my reading would afford. My references, and the books mentioned in my Appendix, will show the sources from which I have derived my principal information; but it would be almost an endless and perhaps a very ostentatious talk, to enumerate all my literary obligations. 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.