DEDICATION. ΤΟ 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 promote, 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 grefix your name to then, though many will imagine, that in doing this, I only wished to indulge my own pride D I presume, Sir, to hope that this offering will not be disagreeable to you; it having been rendered more *John Angerstein, Esq. M. P. who, during his travels, by his amiable, und engaging manners, endeared himself to all those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance, and particularly to the writer, who has had the honour of a more intimate and longer intercourse with him. 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 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 Phytagorea, the Esopica ?-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 Ana, 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 |