A

SECOND SERIES

OF

CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE:

CONSISTING OF

RESEARCHES IN LITERARY, BIOGRAPHICAL, AND
POLITICAL HISTORY; .

OF

CRITICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRIES;

AND OF

SECRET HISTORY.

Isaac

BY I. D'ISRAELI.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

THE SECOND EDITION, CORRECTED.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.

1824.

PREFACE.

It may be useful to state the design of the present volumes, which differ in their character from the preceding Series.

The form of essay-writing, were it now moulded even by the hand of the Raphael of Essayists, would fail in the attraction of novelty; Morality would now in vain repeat its counsels in a fugitive page, and Manners now offer but little variety to supply one. The progress of the human mind has been marked by the enlargement of our knowledge; and essay-writing seems to have closed with the century which it charmed and enlightened.

I have often thought that an occasional recurrence to speculations on human affairs, as they appear in private and in public history, and to other curious inquiries in literature and philosophy, would form some substitute for this mode of writing. These Researches, therefore, offer authentic knowledge for evanescent topics; they attempt to demonstrate some general principle, by induction from a variety of particulars to develop those imperfect truths which float obscurely in the mindand to suggest subjects, which, by their singularity, are new to inquiry, and which may lead to new trains of ideas. Such Researches will often form supplements to our previous knowledge.

In accustoming ourselves to discoveries of this nature, every research seems to yield the agreeable feeling of invention— it is a pleasure peculiar to itself-some

thing which we ourselves have found outand which, whenever it imparts novelty or interest to another, communicates to him the delight of the first discoverer.

These Volumes in the present Edition, having a few pages less in number than the former, it may therefore be necessary to observe that, except some corrections, the Author has had no occasion to make any omissions; at the same time, that he has inserted many additions in their respective subjects.