DEDIC

EDICATIONS in general

are fo many facrifices of

praife, laid upon
í
an altar
erected for him to whom they
are offered, at the expence of
truth, one of the most amiable
virtues. All the excellencies of
human nature, which form the

characteristic differences between

VOL. I.

good

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good and bad men, are indifcriminately configned to him to whose honor the rite is performed. Hence a fad reverse of characters is handed down to posterity; and those, the remembrance of whom should have ended with their lives, ftand recorded in their deaths as the distinguished actors, as well as patrons, of all that is praise-worthy.

I know, Sir, that you, as well as myself, condemn fuch facrifices, and those who offer them. After

After this declaration of the fenfe I entertain of the general addresfes of this fort, I found myself under no difficulty in applying to you,THE FRIEND OF HUMAN NATURE, for permiffion to fend into 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 perfon whom, by the last solemn act of

his

a 2

extended to fuch a length, by your conftant and affectionate watchfulness over a conftitution, the existence of which, un→ der 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, 1790.

PREFACE.

WHE

HEN the amiable author of thefe 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 deferving. Impreffed with this fentiment, from gratitude I undertook the trust with great pleasure; in the execution of which, as far as I could, I have acted 2 4 precisely

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