Excerpt from A Brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Marsden, D. C. L., F. R. S., &C., &C: Written by Himself, With Notes From His Correspondence Although the task of compiling personal memoirs should properly be left to the sound discretion of those who come after us, we are sometimes led by our own individual feelings to anticipate the claims of posterity, and to make the act our own. Such is the case in the present instance, but with the material distinction, that what I now commit to writing is not intended to appear in judgment for or against me, until such a period shall elapse as may remove any objection to what might be thought a premature statement of cotemporary incidents. 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.