PREFACE. THE letters here offered to the public require no other recommendation than the fubjects which they difcufs, and the names of their authors. Curiofity is never more awakened, and never more gratified, than by fuch an epiftolary intercourfe: fages and poets long deceafed there feem revived and prefent to our view: we are admitted into the closets and confidence of the great and good, we imagine ourfelves their friends and correfpondents. Cicero pleading in the forum, and Cicero correfponding with Atticus, appear, it must be owned, in very different lights; but few will be at a lofs to discover in which character he deferves the preference, in which character we are most likely to hear his true and genuine fentiments. |