Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p1.djvu/15

Rh gratitude for their past! I join with the whole country in the fervent wish, that, if the dead are the only legitimate themes of history, it may be very long before they become just subjects of biography. But it is obvious, that if we were condemned to silence as respects them and their actions, the influence of some of the most splendid examples would be lost to the rising generation. To the present attempt, however, the objection does not apply; and the benefit of example may be attained without the possibility of the evil supposed to be blended with it I have carefully abstained, in every doubtful case, from panegyric or censure. I have left praise or blame to result from a plain and simple narration of facts, as correct as my means of research, and industrious investigation, could render it. Some grammatical errors, and many inelegancies of composition, are, I have no doubt, discoverable in this volume; these defects will be excused when it is considered that I went to sea at nine years of age, and that I served during the whole of the late war in vessels of a class to which no schoolmaster is allowed. Those with whom I associated had received as little education as myself; and what, therefore, I had not gained from instruction, I could not derive from example. Such inaccuracies, however, in a work of this kind, will, by those who read from curiosity, or for information, be little regarded. The importance of the Duke of Marlborough’s communication of a victory was not diminished, nor the authenticity of its details affected, because he neglected his periods and wrote oxiliaries in his despatches; nor will the 