TABLE TALK 1829.

OF

JOHN SELDEN.

A NEW EDITION, CORRECTED,

WITH A

Biographical Preface.

CHISWICK:

From the Press of C. Whittingham,

COLLEGE HOUSE.

MDCCCXVIII.

The matter of your prayse

Flowes in upon me; and I cannot rayse
A banke against it: nothing, but the round
Large claspe of nature, such a wit can bound:

Monarch in letters!

BEN JONSON TO SELDEN.

LENOX LIBRARY

NEW YORK

PREFACE.

NOTHING can be more interesting than this little book, containing a lively picture of the opinions and conversation of one of the most eminent scholars and most distinguished patriots England has produced, living at a period the most eventful of our history. There are few volumes of its size so pregnant with sense combined with the most profound learning, it is impossible to open it without finding some important fact or discussion, something practically useful and applicable to the business of life. It may be said of it, as of that exquisite little manual, Bacon's Essays, 'after the twentieth perusal one seldom fails to remark in it something overlooked before.'