A SERIES OF HIS EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE

AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MANY EMINENT PERSONS;

A N D

VARIOUS ORIGINAL PIECES OF HIS COMPOSITION,

NE V ER BEFORE PUBLISHED.

THE WHOLE EXHIBITING A VIEW OF LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN
IN GREAT BRITAIN, FOR NEAR HALF A CENTURY,

DURING WHICH HE FLOURISHED.

EVERYT

VERY liberal motive that can actuate an Authour

in the dedication of his labours, concurs in directing me to you, as the person to whom the following work should be inscribed.

If there be a pleasure in celebrating the distinguished merit of a contemporary, mixed with a certain degree of vanity not altogether inexcusable, in appearing fully sensible 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 presided with

unrivalled