PREFACE. THE following Collection of Letters is a part of a defign, which the Editor had formed, to felect and publish, in large volumes, fuch compofitions, both in verfe and profe, as he judged might be useful to young perfons, by conducing to their improvement in their own langange, while they were cultivating an acquaintance with the ancients, and purfuing all other accomplishments of a polite and liberal education. The two first parts of his plan, already published, Elegant Extracts in Profe, and in Poetry, have been received with a degree of favour, which evinces that the preconceived idea of their utility has been amply confirmed by the decifions of experience. Animated by their good reception, the Editor determined to proceed in bis deign, and to add a copious Collection of Letters, in a fimilar volume. It occurred to him, that no literary exercise is in fuch conftant request as Letter-writing. All are not to be Poets, Orators, or Hiftorians; but all, at leaft above the lowest rank, are to be sometimes Letter-writers. The daily intercourse of common life cannot be duly preserved without this mode of communication. How much pleasure, and how much advantage, of various kinds, is derived from it, requires but little elucidation. Every emergence furnishes occafion for it. It is necessary to friendship and to love; to intereft and to ambition. In every purfuit, and in every department of polished life, to write Letters is an indispensable requifite; and to write OUS |