THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OF GEORGE THE SECOND. BY DR. GOLDSMITH. NEW EDITION. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR G. GOULDING, JAMES-STREET, COVENT 1794. FROM the favourable reception given to my Abridgment of Roman Hiftory, published fome time fince, feveral friends, and others, whose business leads them to confult the wants of the public, have been induced to fuppofe, that an English history written on the fame plan would be acceptable. It was theit opinion that we still wanted a work of this kind, where the narrative, though very concife, is not totally without intereft, and the facts, though crowded, are yet diftinctly feen. The bufinefs of abridging the works of others has hitherto fallen to the lot of very dull men; and the art of blotting, which an eminent critic calls the most difficult of all others, has been usually practifed by those who found themselves unable to write. Hence, our abridgments are generally more tedious than the works from which they |