"He has been at a great Feast of languages, and stolen all the scraps." LONDON: PRINTED FOR G. WILKIE AND J. ROBINSON, . PATERNOSTER ROW. INTRODUCTION. WHEN a work of this description, aiming only to be useful, has passed in a short time through four Editions, it may be supposed, without a strained inference, to have gained the sanction of those for whose use it was intended. The Compiler, therefore, finds it no longer necessary to apologize for the novelty of the attempt, whatever palliations he may have to offer for the manner in which it has been brought forward. The first sketch of this Work, he has simply to say, was drawn up for the use of a private friend, and without a view to publication. By mere accident, it met the eye of a most worthy and intelligent man, to whose zeal and spirit the Public is indebted for publications of infinitely higher importance. It was his opinion, that the sketch * The late Mr. George Robinson. should should be published as a matter of experiment. It was well received; and the critics of the day com- plained only of its brevity. Since that time, the Compiler has devoted much of his occasional leisure, to reduce that to order and system, which, on a At a former period of our literary History, it is certain, that an attempt to form "A Dictionary of Quotations" would have been fruitless, and unavailing. When Memory, and not Taste, was consulted, in citing Passages from ancient Authors, no compilation, however voluminous, could have been adequate or useful. But at present, whether we refer to Mis- cellaneous Reading, or to Conversation, little remains of those tedious and frequent Quotations, which "larded The practice having thus gradually yielded to the Augustan age, or of apophthegms, and technical phrases, the pith and point of which are not easily transferred into another language. We have also borrowed, but with a sparing hand, some useful precepts, and a few poetic blossoms, from our continental neighbours. These, however, collectively taken, are so far from being numerous, that it is rather a matter of surprise, that they should not before have been alphabetically arranged, than that it should now for the first time be attempted. There have been some previous compilations of a similar nature, but these were scanty in their limits, and the quotations being arranged according to their subject matter, it was required of the reader, who was acquainted only with his vernacular tongue, to divine the general meaning of the exotic phrase, before he could learn where to apply for more exact information! The alphabetical arrangement which the Compiler of this Work has adopted, whilst it offers a more ready and convenient mode to readers of this description, has also led, he must admit, to some repetitions; but of these it must be pleaded in excuse, that |