able reflections in the reading, a short
instruction, consisting of maxims drawn from the writing or example of
each saint, is subjoined to the principal life for each day, which may
be omitted at discretion. A succinct account of the writings of the
fathers is given in marginal notes, as a key to young theologians in
studying their works: their ascetical lucubrations are principally
pointed out, in which their spirit is often discovered, even to better
advantage than in the best histories which are left us of their actions.

The compiler's first care in this work, hath been a most scrupulous
attachment to truth, the foundation, or rather the soul of all history,
especially of that which tends to the advancement of piety and religion.
The indagation is often a task both nice and laborious. If we weigh the
merit of original authors, some we shall find careless and injudicious,
and many write under the bias of party prejudice, which strangely
perverts the judgment. By this, James Basnage could, in his History of
the Jews, (b. 6,) notoriously mistake and misrepresent, by wholesale,
the clearest authorities, to gratify his prepossession against an
incontestable miracle, as the most learned Mr. Warburton hath
demonstrated in his Julian, (b. 2, ch. 4.) Some write history as they
would a tragedy or a romance; and, seeking at any rate to please the
reader, or display their art, often sacrifice the truth for the sake of
a fine conceit, of a glittering thought, or a point of wit.[7] Another
difficulty is, that ancient writings have sometimes suffered much by the
bold rashness of modern critics, or in the manuscripts, by the slips of
careless copiers.[8] Again, authors who polish the style, or abridge the
histories of others, are seldom to be trusted; and experience will show
us the same of translations. Even Henry Valois, the most learned and
celebrated Greek interpreter, is accused of having sometimes so far
mistaken the sense of Eusebius, as to have given in his translation the
contradictory of the meaning of his author.

A greater mischief than all these have been the forgeries of impostors,
especially heretics. Indeed, if the father of lies, by the like
instruments, {053} found means to counterfeit forty-eight or fifty false
gospels, of which a list is given by Calmet,[9] is it surprising that,
from the same forge, he should have attempted to adulterate the
histories of certain saints? But the vigilance of zealous pastors, an