to the first Edition 184 being the Huthors first Work. TO LADY IMPEY. Flushing, January, 1810. MY DEAR AND HONOURED MADAM, IN preparing this little volume for your perusal, I have endeavoured to turn to some advantage those hours of leisure and retirement which I am disabled by sickness from devoting to more important proofs of filial affection. Nothing has been wanting to render this token worthy of your acceptance, that depended either upon my own efforts, or upon the encouragement and criticism bestowed on them by my literary friends. B The latter, except where a more explicit avowal has been deemed indispensable, it will be sufficient for me generally to acknowledge, without a personal reference to authorities, which might perhaps give weight to my exertions, but could add none to reputations already established. There is a sacred respect due to some characters, which should preserve them inviolate for occasions exclusively suited to their importance. Besides, every appeal to the public, presupposes a privilege in the public of pronouncing a definitive sentence, unbiassed by all possible respectability of private recommendation. Had I not hoped that these productions were in some degree worthy of publication, I should not have committed them to the press much less should I have presumed to shelter my defects as a writer, under the sanction of your revered name. |