PREFACE.

THE multiplication of books is the cause of much complaint, and it must be conceded that the inconvenience is not trivial to those who are, or suppose themselves, under an obligation to pay some attention to the current literature of the day. When however the matter is duly considered, it will be found that this inconvenience, like most others, is not an unmixed evil, but 'productive of many advantages. It is not a conclusive objection to a new book, that there are better ones already in existence that remain unread. The elements of human nature and human society remain the same, but their forms and combinations are changing at every moment, and nothing can be more different than the appearances and effects produced by the same original principles of human nature as exhibited in different countries, or at different periods of time in the same country.

"Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis."