I shall never be content till I have superseded Hume, and I believe I…

I won't divide by Kings, a system whereby History is made Tory unawares and infants are made to hate History.

As you see in my own Wee-Book, I think moral and intellectual facts as much facts for the historian as military or political facts.

So prodigious has been the store of original documents, charters, rolls, dispatches, memoirs which have of late been disinterred from the archives of the past, that history has retrograded into annals.

This book for men alone is meant, Book-worms, or bibliophiles anent, Of solid mind, of serious bent, On curious, hidden books intent, On odd research and learning.

No book exists, however bad, From which some good may not be had.

When I survey the bright Celestial sphere; So rich with jewels hung, that Night Doth like an Ethiop bride appear:My soul her wings doth spread And heavenward flies, Th' Almighty's mysteries to read