Characters [electronic resource] : or historical anecdotes of all the kings and queens of England, From William the Conqueror to the present Time, Impartially Delineated. Extracted partly from Burnet, Clarendon, Rapin, Smollett, Hume, Macauley, and other able Historians. Calculated with a view To form the tender Minds of Youth, inspire them with a laudable Emulation, improve their Morals, and give them a just Conception of human Nature, however dignisied, or however disguised by Pride, Avarice, Ambition, and other reigning Passions, and Prejudices: Recommended To all Parents, Guardians, Tutors, and Preceptors to our young Nobility for the Improvement of their Pupils, and very necessary to be read in all Seminaries of useful and polite Education. Intended Originally For the Improvement of the younger Branches of the Author's own Family, as a Mirror, whereby they might avoid the Errors in Life, shun the Vices, and imitate the Virtues, so interwoven in the Characters described in this History. With an appendix, containing the characters of Oliver Cromwell, Admiral Blake, Duke of Marlborough, King of Prussia, Voltaire. By William Heckford, Esq.