"I cannot intrude this volume on the public without informing them, what all my friends will vouch for the truth of, viz.
The public, I presume, will not be wholly disappointed; the extracts I have made from Jefferson, Belknap, and other american writers, are wo. - that on my return from America, in 1797, I wrote the work in its present form for their perusal; and, that conscious of my want of talent as a writer, I resisted all their entreaties for its publication, till within these three months. "I cannot intrude this volume on the public without informing them, what all my friends will vouch for the truth of, viz