DEDICATIONS in general are fo many facrifices of praise, laid upon 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. a good 200303 good and bad men, are indifcriminately consigned to him to whose honor the rite is per formed. Hence a fad reverse of characters is handed down to pofterity; 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 facri- • fices, and those who offer them. After After this declaration of the fenfe I entertain of the general addreffes 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 whose 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 folemn act of extended to fuch a length, by your conftant and affectionate watchfulness over a constitution, 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. WH 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 pleafure; in the execution of which, as far as I could, I have acted precisely 2 4 |