Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. DEAN OP THIS CATHEDRAL, AND RECTOR OF WEST KIRKBY AND HANDLEY IN THIS COVNTY, WHO DIED THE Xllth OF JANVARY M, DCC, LXXXVII, IN THE LXXVlth YEAR OF HIS AOE. AS A SCHOLAR, HIS REPVTATION IS PERPETVATED BY HIS VALUABLE PVBLICATIONS, PARTICVLARLY HIS CORRECT AND ELEGANT TRANSLATIONS OF LONGINVS, THVCYDIDES, AND XENOPHON. AS A PREACHER, HE WAS ADMIRED AND ESTEEMED BY HIS RESPECTIVE AVDITORIES. AND AS A MAN, HIS MEMORY REMAINS INSCRIBED ON THE HEARTS OF HIS FRIENDS. THIS MONVMENT WAS ERECTED BY HIS AFFECTIONATE WIDOW. chapter{{Section 4TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES. Sir, ?The History of Thucydides hath been studiously read and admired by the greatest princes, and may therefore presume to lay some claim to the protection of your Royal Highness. Great Britain, of all the states now existing in the world, most nearly resembleth what Athena was at the time when the war, which is the subject of it, broke out in Greece. A love of liberty, which hath erroneously been supposed to thrive and flourish best in a democratical government, was then warm and active in every Athenian. Athens, it is true, had thus been raised to a great height of maritime power, and was become a very formidable state: but faction disjointed a noble plan, and at length brought on the loss of her sovereignty at sea. The Athenians soon ceased to be great, when they deviated from those salutary maxims which their worthiest patriots and most consummate statesmen had recommended to their constant observance. The maritime power of Great Britain is more substantially founded, and hath ever been more steadily supported, than was that of Athens. The most complete and most lasting form of government that man can invent,