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Excerpt from Goldsmith's Roman History: Abridged by Himself; For the Use of Schools But while I thus have endeavoured to avoid prolixity, it was found no easy matter to prevent crowding the facts, and to give every narration its proper play. In reality, no art can contrive to avoid opposite defects; he who indulges in minute particularities will be often lan guid, and he, who studies conciseness will as frequently be dry and unentertaining. As it was my aim to\comprise as much as possible in the wallest compass, it is feared the work will often be subject to 'the latter imputation; but it was impossible to furnish the public with a cheap R00 man history, and at the same time give all that warmth to the narrative. All those colourings to the description, which works of twenty times the bulk have room to ex bibit. I shall be fully satisfied, therefore, if it furnishes an interest sufficient to allure the reader to the end and this is a claimto which few abridgements can justly make pretensions. To these objections there are some who may add, that I have rejected many of the modern improvements in Roman histor and that every character is left in full possession of at fame or infamy which it obtained from its contemporaries, those who wrote immediately after. I acknowledge the charge, for it appears now too late to rejudge the virtues or the vices of those men who where but very incompletely known even to their own bistori ans. The Romans, perhaps, upon many occasions, form ed wrong ideas of virtue; but they were by no means so ignorant or abandoned in general as not to give their brightest characters the greatest share of their ap plause; and I do not know whether it be fair to try Pa gan actions by the standard ot'christian morality. 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-t