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Hardin
3-21-29
18983
2 vols.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IT is prefumed that the following felection

will be found extremely useful to Readers of almost every class:-To the youthful, as it contains the choiceft flowers of fancy, which cannot fail to warm and refine the imagination:-To the Statesman, Philofopher, &c. as abounding in excellent maxims and reflections, drawn from extenfive reading, tried and approved by experience and observation: -To all who afpire to enlarge the sphere of their understanding, but to Englishmen in particular, as every British subject is interested in fome part of it.

It is neceffary to premife, that the paffages felected from Mr. Burke's Pamphlet, entitled,

"A Vindication of Natural Society," are not to be taken as conveying Mr. Burke's own opinions, but as an ingenious and artful attack on the principles of Lord Bolingbroke.

A sketch of Mr. Burke's Life, with fome original anecdotes, is prefixed, for which the Author entreats the indulgence of the Public, as it is the firft attempt of a trembling pen in the biographic line.

A copious index is added, to fupply any defects in the arrangement of the different articles, as it was very difficult, amidst fuch a variety, to place every one under its head.

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The letter to Mr. Smith was transmitted by an anonymous hand, of course we cannot vouch for its authenticity.

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THE gentleman, who fuggefted the idea of the

following felection, conceived that it would be acceptable to prefix fome anecdotes of the author. If time, talent, and the nature of the work admitted, it would, in many refpects, be a pleafing task to trace this extraordinary man through all the mazes of his politics, to attend him in ftudious retirement, to mark the boldest flights of his imagination, to fathom a mind, rich and profound as the ocean, and as eafily agitated by every guft of paffion, and tornado of refentment.-Mr. Burke was called into action in the most eventful period that ever enriched the page of history. His voice was early raised in favour of liberty in America. The blazing funs of India have been often loft in the fplendour of his eloquence. The fable children of Africa have numbered him in the lift of their advocates, and almost every state in Europe has, at one time or other, been the fubject of his tongue and his pen.

Mr. Burke was first taught to read by his mother, a woman of excellent understanding, and a highly cultivated mind. He was inftructed in writing and accounts by Mr. James Fitzgerald, who kept a dayb

fchool near Smithfield, Dublin. At the age of twelve he was committed to the care of Mr. Abraham Shackelton, a Quaker, mafter of an eminent claffical academy in Balitore, in the County of Kildare. That the reader may form fome idea of his preceptor, and the feminary, we transcribe the following advertisement, which appeared in the public prints about that time:

BALITORE BOARDING-SCHOOL.

"Abraham Shackelton informs his friends and the public, that being placed guardian over the morals of the youth under his care, he declines, from confcientious motives, to teach that part of the academic courfe, which he conceives injurious to morals, and fubverfive of found principles, particularly thofe authors, who recommend in feducing language, the illufions of love, and the abominable trade of war. Thofe who defign their fons for the college, will take their measures accordingly. He profeffes to fit youth for business, and inftruct them in polite literature. His terms are fix pounds per quarterno entrance money demanded."

Mr. Shackelton was a man of fine even temper, fevere in his morals, but extremely indulgent to his pupils, with regard to the bent of their genius, which he was ftudious to difcover and cultivate-his maxim was Natura fequitur melius quam ducitur. Young Burke was very attentive to his ftudies-fometimes at the expence of his health. He did not confine himself to the Greek and Roman claffics, he read at intervals fome of the best English writers, and evinced much taste in the selection of the finest paffages-many which he committed to memory. He was paffionately fond of reading Don Bellianis of Greece. This circumstance he mentioned himself one night in the Houfe of Commons, in the debate on the Affairs of Holland in 1786. He also takes notice of this ro

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