Book excerpt: Excerpt from Naval History of Great Britain, Including the History and Lives of the British Admirals, Vol. 1 of 8 In order to do this effectually, it seemed requisite to intersperse the Memoirs or personal Histories of those illustrious men, who had distinguished themselves in this method of rendering service to their country. It appear ed to be a tribute justly due to those services, and, at the same time, expedient for the satisfi faction of the reader, who must naturally desire to be more intimately acquainted with those to whom the nation stood indebted for her discoveries or her conquests. Besides, it gave an opportunity to discuss minutely some points of consequence, that otherwise might have embarrassed the narrative, to vindicate some great characters from injurious aspersions, and to answer many other purposes, that serve to throw light upon the whole design. But to avoid, as far as possible, the' confounding Naval History with these Memoirs, it was found expedient, to place them at the end of every reign and the greatest attention possi ble has been bestowed, to prevent any' name; cessary repetition, or intermixing such circum stances ot' their lives, as had no connection with the character in which they are here con sidcred. Such was the plan adopted by the learned and judicious Dr. Campbell, whose work. 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-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.