234
ST. JOHN OP JERUSALEM.
[BOOK. IV.
hundred years old before it managed a boat, butwas altogether equestrian during its two first andperhaps most glorious centuries, and became maritimein a period of distress and decline—awful changeand hard—matters that sound new, so ancient arethey—and now requiring proofs which have beengiyen, it is expected to universal satisfaction—that thegrand masters, through no short roll, were in generalabove mediocrity, not one of them beneath it—thatwe may regret the severity wloich bade the nobleEnglish Language cease existing—and fearlessly dowe add the sooner it is restored the better, but firstby inevitable relation the order to winch it had thehonour of belonging, and without which it can nomore live than the branch without the trunk—thatto corroborate my proofs, or amplify my details wouldbe easy; but to overturn one particle of my state-ments is quite impossible—finally that if, as I hope,these pages have contributed, in however faint adegree, to your pleasure, 0 courteous reader, orinformation, then of the author say God bless him.
END OP BOOK AND ABEYANCE THE FOURTH.