particular attention towards them by any special protest.

The editor's notes are marked M.

A considerable part of the quotations (some of which in the
later editions had fallen into great confusion) have been
verified, and have been corrected by the latest and best editions
of the authors.

June, 1845.

In this new edition, the text and the notes have been
carefully revised, the latter by the editor.

Some additional notes have been subjoined, distinguished by
the signature M. 1845.

Preface Of The Author.

It is not my intention to detain the reader by expa??iating
on the variety or the importance of the subject, which I have
undertaken to treat; since the merit of the choice would serve to
render the weakness of the execution still more apparent, and
still less excusable. But as I have presumed to lay before the
public a first volume only ^1 of the History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire, it will, perhaps, be expected that I
should explain, in a few words, the nature and limits of my
general plan.

[Footnote 1: The first volume of the quarto, which contained the