Excerpt from Guizot's Memories of His Times Defects of style and composition will no doubt be found in every page of the work. I must hope therefore that my readers will take into consideration the fact, that from my earliest childhood I have been blind, and that all my impressions have been derived from the lips and through the eyes of others. I prefer to take my position amongst the unaided Blind Volunteers of Literature, rather than avail myself of the proffered assistance of those numerous literary friends who would gladly have 'lent me their valuable aid in putting a polish on my crude and imperfect Essays. 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.