Excerpt from History of English Literature Pondering on these modes of feeling and thought, men decided that i them were embalmed facts of the highest kind. They saw that these facts bore reference to the most important occurrences, that they aphined and were explained by them, that it was necessary thence iarth to give them a rank, and a most important rank, in history. This unk they have received, and from that moment history has undergone a complete change: in its subject-matter, its system, its machinery, the appreciation of laws and of causes. It is this change, as it has hap pened and must still happen, that we shall here endeavour to exhibit. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.