Imperfect, however, as these Commentaries may seem to those, who are accustomed to demand a perfect finish in all elementary works, they have been attended with a degree of uninviting labour, and dry research, of which it is scarcely possible for the general reader to form any adequate estimate. Many of the materials, lay loose and scattered; and were to be gathered up among pamphlets and discussions of a tempo rary character; among obscure private and public documents and from collections, which required an exhausting diligence to master their contents, or to select from' unimportant masses, a few facts, or a solitary argument. Indeed, it required no small labour, even after these sources were explored, to bring together the irregular fragments, and to form them into groups, in which they might illustrate and support each other.