MY WIFE,
THE PATIENT AND CHEERFUL ASSOCIATE OF MY STUDIES,
AFTER MORE THAN FORTY YEARS OF
HAPPY COMPANIONSHIP,
This Volume
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
BY
THE COMPILER.
Writers of an abler sort,
Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style,
Give Truth a lustre, and make Wisdom smile.
Cowper.
General observations drawn from particulars are the jewels of knowledge, comprehending great store in a little room.
Locke.
Out of monuments, names, wordes, proverbs, traditions, private recordes, and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of bookes, and the like, we doe save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.
Bacon.