Excerpt from The Oceana of James Harrington, Esq. And His Other Works: With an Account of His Life Prefix'd B U T Heaven be duly prais'd, Learning begins to flourifh again in its proper Soil among our Gentlemen, in imitation of the Roman Patricians, who did not love to walk in Leading-firings, and to be guided blindfold, nor lazily to abandon the care of their proper Eu fineis to the management of Men having a dii'tinet Profefiion and Inte reft: for the greatefi part of their belt Authors were Ferions of Con fular Dignity, the ablef't Statefmen, and the melt gallant Command ers. Wherefore the amplei't fatisfae'tion I can enjoy of this fort will be, to hnd thofe delighted with reading this Work, for whole fervice it was intended by the Author 5 and which with the fl'udy of other good Books, but efpecially a careful perufal of the Greek and Roman Hifiorians, will make 'em in reality deferve the Title and Refpeet of Gentlemen, help 'em to make an advantageous Figure in their own time, perpetuate their illuftrious Names and folid Worth to be admir'd by future Generations. AS for my felf, tho' no imployment or condition of Life (hall make me difrelifh the lafting entertainment which Books afford; yet I have refolv'd not to write the Life of any modern Perfon again, except that only of one man (till alive, and whom in the ordinary courfe of nature I am like to furvivea long while, he being already far advanc'd, in his declining time, and I but this prefent day beginning the thirtieth year of my Age. 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.