Page:The Life of George Washington, Volume 1.djvu/18

x on their authority. Their very language has sometimes been employed without distinguishing the passages, especially when intermingled with others, by marks of quotation; and the author persuades himself that this public declaration will rescue him from the imputation of receiving aids he is unwilling to acknowledge, or of wishing, by a concealed plagiarism, to usher to the world, as his own, the labours of others.

In selecting the materials for the succeeding volumes, it was deemed proper to present to the public as much as possible of General Washington himself. Prominent as he must be in any history of the American war, there appeared to be a peculiar fitness in rendering him still more so in one which professes to give a particular account of his own life. His private opinions therefore; his various plans, even those which were never carried into execution; his individual exertions to prevent and correct the multiplied errors committed by inexperience, are given in more minute detail; and more copious extracts from his letters are taken, than would comport with the plan of a more general work. Many events too are unnoticed, which in such a composition would be worthy of being introduced, and much useful information has not been sought for, which a professed