OR MANY THINGS IN FEW WORDS; ADDRESSED TO THOSE WHO THINK. BY THE REV. C. C. COLTON, A. M. HYPO- LATE FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AUTHOR OF Φιλόσοφια εκ παραδειγματων.” "The noblest study of mankind is man.' VOL. II A NEW EDITION. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, and green, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1826. MD INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND VOLUME. I KNOW not that I should have attempted a Second Volume of LACON, if the first had not met with some encouragement; Its reception has proved that my book has been purchased at least by the many, and I have testimonies far more gratifying, that it has not been disapproved of by the few. He that aspires to produce a work that shall instruct and amuse the unlearned, without displeasing or disgusting the scholar, proposes to himself an object more attainable perhaps on any other theme, than on that which I have adopted; for on this subject all men are critics, although very few are connoisseurs; the man of the world is indignant at being supposed to stand in need of information, and the philosopher feels that he is above it; the old will not quit the school of their own experience, and hope is the only moralist that has any weight with the young. There are many things on which even a coxcomb will receive instruction with gratitude, as for instance a knowledge of the languages, or of the mathematics, B |