ENOX LIBRAR

NEW YORK

DEDICATION.

TO

JOHN JULIUS ANGERSTEIN, ESQ.

SIR,

THE greatest part of this work was written during a temporary repose from the duties of my profession, for which I was indebted to your liberal

patronage, and is the result of my readings with your . son, * whose improvement I earnestly wished to pro

mote, and who has had, as well as myself, many opportunities of knowing how justly, and faithfully, the following sketches of Dr. Moore, are depicted. Under these considerations I have thought and felt it a duty to zrefix Hoer name to thein, though many will imagine, that in doing this, I only wished

I to indulge my own pride's

I presume, Sir, to hope that-chiz offering will not be disagreeable to you ; it-having öeen rendered more

perfect, and worthy of your notice, by the assistance
of my friend and colleague, who holds a respectable
situation in the republic of letters, and who has
carefully watched over its grammatical propriety;
but that with your usual kind indulgence you will
welcome it as a feeble though sincere token of those
sentiments of gratitude, for your past protection,
and high regard, for your benevolent, and patriotic
virtues, which no circumstances, nor events, have
ever been, nor ever will be, able to eradicate from my
bosom.
I have the honour to be respectfully,

SIR,
Your most humble,
Most dutiful,

And obliged Servant,
::"FRANCIS PREVOST.

LONDON,

January 1st, 1803

PREFACE.

We need not inform our classical readers, that the books in ana, (a Latin termination adopted in the titles of some works,) are collections of the most remarkable sayings or writings of persons of learning and wit; nearly similar to what is commonly called table-talk:but, in order to assign to those literary productions, which are in many respects extremely useful, the degree of merit they deserve, and which has sometimes been refused to them ; as well as to justify the present undertaking, we will desire our readers to observe, that books under the name of Ana, which are more numerous in French than in English literature, although, perhaps, new in respect to their form and titles, are nevertheless, as to their matter, and composition, of a very old date. The Greeks who were always considered as our masters in every polite art and science; the Greeks, so refined in, and celebrated for their literature, far from disdaining, kindly welcomed, and highly esteemed those collections, when made with care, taste, and discernment. Are not Xenophon's books of the deeds and sayings of Socrates, as well as the dialogues of Plato, Socratiana ? Has not the most fastidious critic read with enthusiasm, the Orphica, the Phytagoræa, the Æsopica ? --why, then, should the modern Ana, be looked upon, by the learned of our age, as the contemptible productions of needy book-makers, or as the commercial speculations of people in trade?

In imitation of the Greeks, our infallible models; and to favour a more extensive circulation of knowledge among all ranks of society, we intend to publish, if the present work should be honoured with the public patronage, an extensive series of And, selected from the productions of the most renowned and lately deceased authors of this country as well as those of the continent. The preparation of this series having for some time formed the amusement of our leisure hours, the whole is in such a state of forwardness that the volumes will be speedily and successively published, with the addition of co