After this declaration of the sense

I entertain of the general addresfes of this fort, I found myfelf under no difficulty in applying to you, THE FRIEND OF HUMAN NATURE, for permiffion to fend in

to the world, under the fanction

of

your name, the works of an author, who, through life, had a ftrict claim to that character; and whofe fubftitute, fince his death, you are in fome fort become, by the alliance of one of your family with that person whom, by the last folemn act of

his

Give me leave to acknowledge the fenfe I entertain of your kindness, in granting me

this permiffion, fince it fatisfies

my feelings as to the execution of the trust committed to me by the author, of collecting and fuperintending the publication of all his works; by warranting me to do that, which, could he have foreknown, would have had the fanction of his highest approba

tion.

Having thus far discharged the trust repofed in me by the author, I cannot fatisfy, fo far as is in my power, a debt of gratitude I owe to you, without availing myself of this opportunity to declare publicly (and that, I trust, not without an honeft and becoming pride) how much I am bound to you for the kind and uninterrupted friendship with which you have been pleased to favour me thro' a very long courfe of years; an obligation which hath been extended to fuch a length, by

your conftant and affectionate watchfulness over a conftitution, the existence of which, under Providence, your great profeffional knowledge and experience have prolonged far beyond that period, which, from the infirmities long attending it, could ever have been expected, or hoped for, by

DEAR SIR,

Your fincere,

Affectionate,

And obliged,

CHARLES NALSON COLE,

Lincoln's Inn Fields,

Feb, 1, 1799.

PREFACE.

W

HEN the amiable author of these volumes, by one of the laft acts of his life, bequeathed to me all the copy-rights of what he had published, and configned to my care the literary papers which he left behind him, with a defire that I would collect together and fuperintend the publication of all his works, I confidered this truft as a mark of his confidence, of which, after a friendship between us for near half a century, he thought me deserving. Impreffed with this sentiment, from gratitude I undertook the truft with great pleasure; in the execution of which, as far as I could, I have acted precisely

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