The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, by Gilbert Burnet, D.D., late Lord Bishop of Salisbury—with the Collection of Records and a copious Index, revised and corrected, with additional Notes and a Preface, by the Rev. E. Nares, D.D., late Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford. Illustrated with a Frontispiece and twenty-three engraved Portraits, forming four elegant 8vo. vols. $8 00.
The established character of Bishop Burnet’s History of the Reformation as a standard work, and most valuable historical authority, render it unnecessary to enter into any analysis of its merits, further than briefly to state the advantages of this edition over all others.
Often as this celebrated History of the Reformation of the Church of England has been printed and published, often as it has been read, and continually as it has been referred to by successive writers, interested in the important subject of which it treats; yet one thing seems to have been constantly overlooked, namely, the necessity of a distinct Preface to point out, and to explain to readers in general, the particular character of the publication.
It is a work of too great magnitude to be repeatedly read through, and though its eminence as an historical work, must always be such as to render it imperatively necessary for certain writers to consult its pages, yet in every reprint of it, it should be contemplated by the publisher not merely as a book of reference, but as one to be read like other books of history regularly from the beginning to the end, not by professed scholars only, or by persons already versed in history, civil or ecclesiastical, but by such as may be only beginning their historical inquiries and researches—young readers and mere students.
Scarcely any other book of equal importance, perhaps, stands so much in need of preliminary explanations as this great work of the celebrated writer whose name it bears. And it most often, we should think, have been a matter of just surprise to the readers of this history, that, in the editions hitherto published, the errors in the first and second volumes have been reprinted, which the author himself noticed at the end of the third volume. In the present edition the text will be found corrected as it should be, and many explanatory notes added throughout the work.
“The extract above from the editor’s preface defines the peculiar merits of this splendid work, which is at once the cheapest and the most elegant edition which we have ever seen, of this well known and invaluable history. We were fed on the old folio edition of Burnet in the days of our childhood, and the impressions which its facts and its illustrations then made on the mind, have never been effaced, but have had their full share in making us thoroughly Protestant, and aggressive enemies of the church of Rome. We are therefore most heartily rejoiced to see that Appleton & Co. have issued this standard work in four elegant volumes, at only two dollars a volume; and when we look at its numerous and fine engravings of many distinguished reformers, and its more than two thousand pages of reading matter on handsome paper in elegant type, we cannot doubt that thousands of our readers will wish to introduce it into their families without delay.”—N. Y. Observer.
GUIZOT’S HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION.
General History of Civilization in Europe, from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution. Translated from the French of M. Guizot, Professor of History to la Faculté des Lettres of Paris, and Minister of Public Instruction. Third American edition, with Explanatory Notes, (adapted for the use of Colleges and High Schools,) by C. S. Henry, D.D., Professor of Philosophy and History in the University of the city of New-York. One handsomely printed vol., 12mo. $1 00.
CARLYLE ON HISTORY AND HEROES.
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. Six Lectures, reported with Emendations and Additions. By Thomas Carlyle, Author of the French Revolution, Sartor Resartus, &c. Elegantly printed in one vol 12mo. Second edition. $1 00.