Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1837, by ANDREWS 558.5 CAMBRIDGE: FOLSOM, WELLS, AND THURSTON, HDS 26 PREFACE. I BEGAN the work of which I now publish the first volume, in the year 1819; and was then so much in error respecting the inquiries to which it would lead me, that I recollect believing that it might be completed in six months. I have since deceived myself and some of my friends with the expectation of its speedy conclusion. The causes of delay have been. partly circumstances merely personal, partly my being occupied by other objects theological and literary, but principally the fact, that the inquiry on which we are about to enter, when thoroughly pursued, presents itself in unexpected relations to many important subjects, all of which it is necessary to examine in order to its satisfactory discussion. As regards some of the principal of these subjects, the truth did not seem to me to have been established; and, as regards every subject that may be embraced in such a work |