L

1823

THE

BRITISH ESSAYISTS;

WITH

PREFACES

BIOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL,

AND CRITICAL,

BY THE

REV. LIONEL THOMAS BERGUER,

LATE OF ST. MARY HALL, OXON: FELLOW EXTRAORDINARY OF THE
ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.

IN FORTY-FIVE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR T. AND J. ALLMAN, PRINCES STREET,

HANOVER SQUARE:

W. Baynes and Son, Paternoster Row; A. B. Dulau and Co. Soho Square;
W. Clarke, New Bond Street; R. Jennings, Poultry; J. Hearne, Strand;
R. Triphook, Old Bond Street; Westley and Parrish, Strand; W. Wright,
Fleet Street; C. Smith, Strand: H. Mozley, Derby: W. Grapel, and
Robinson and Sons, Liverpool; Bell and Bradfute, J. Anderson, jun. and
H. S. Baynes and Co. Edinburgh: M. Keene, and J. Cumming, Dublin.

ADVERTISEMENT.

In offering to the world this New Edition of the BRITISH ESSAYISTS, which the Proprietors have spared no expense to render complete in every department, the Editor's first acknowledgments are due to the Rev. ROBERT FELLOWES, M. A. of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, for the three luminous and able Prefaces which are distinguished by his signature.

He has likewise to tender his thanks to the Rev. EDWARD RICE, M.A. of St. Paul's School, for his careful revision of the mottos and quotations, Greek and Latin, which are dispersed throughout these volumes.

The OLLA PODRIDA, the WINTER EVENINGS, and the MICROCOSM, appear now for the first time in this collection : and, though only two of them can be strictly denominated periodical, yet the WINTER EVENINGS from the close analogy between their subjects, and the common life belonging ex-officio to the Essayists—it has been suggested, will be deemed neither an inappropriate, nor undesirable accession.

To Sir THOMAS LAWRENCE, P. R. A. for his polite attention in the superintendence of the engraving of the portrait of Mr. CANNING, which is copied from a painting now in a state of progress from the pencil