A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE AND VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED. PRINTED BY HENRY BALDWIN, - FOR CHARLES DILLY, IN THE POULTRY. M DCC XCI. DEDICATION. то SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. MY DEAR SIR, VERY liberal motive that can actuate an Authour EVE in the dedication of his labours, concurs in directing me to you, as the person to whom the following work fhould be infcribed. If there be a pleasure in celebrating the diftinguished merit of a contemporary, mixed with a certain degree of vanity not altogether inexcufable, in appearing fully fenfible of it, where can I find one in complimenting whom I can with more general approbation gratify those feelings? Your excellence, not only in the Art over which you have long prefided with unrivalled unrivalled fame, but also in Philofophy and elegant Literature, is well known to the present, and will continue to be the admiration of future ages. Your equal and placid temper, your variety of converfation, your true politeness, by which you are fo amiable in private society, and that enlarged hospitality which has long made your houfe a common centre of union for the great, the accomplished, the learned, and the ingenious; all these qualities I can, in perfect confidence of not being accused of flattery, afcribe to you. If a man may indulge an honest pride, in having it known to the world, that he has been thought worthy of particular attention by a person of the first eminence in the age in which he lived, whofe company has been universally courted, I am justified in availing myself of the ufual privilege of a Dedication, when I mention that there has been a long and uninterrupted friendship between us. If gratitude fhould be acknowledged for favours received, I have this opportunity, my dear Sir, most fincerely to thank you for the many happy hours which |
