ANGELL'S STENOGRAPHY, or SHORT-HAND Improved. 1758. To the Most Noble CHARLES Duke of RICHMOND, LENNOX, AUBIGNY, &C. May it please your GRACE, THE improvement of arts and sciences has always been esteemed laudable; and in proportion to their utility and advantage to mankind, they have generally gained the patronage of persons the most distinguished for birth, learning, and reputation in the world. This is an art undoubtedly of public utility, and which has been cultivated by persons of distinguished abilities, as will appear from its history. But as most of their systems have been defective, clogged with a multiplicity of rules, and perplexed by arbitrary, intricate, and impracticable schemes, I have endeavoured to rectify their defects, to adapt it to all capacities, and render it of general, lasting, and extensive benefit. How this is effected the following plates will sufficiently explain, to which I have prefixed a suitable introduction, and a concise and impartial history of the origin and progressive improvements of this art. And as I have submitted the whole to the inspection of accurate judges, whose approbation I am honoured with, I most humbly crave leave to publish it to the world under your Grace's patronage; not merely on account of your great dignity and high rank in life, though these receive a lustre from your Grace's humanity; but also from a knowledge of your Grace's disposition to encourage every useful art, and favour all true pro 3 moters moters of science. That your Grace may long live the friend of learning, the guardian of liberty, and the patron of virtue, and then transmit your name with the highest honour and esteem to latest posterity, is the ardent wish of Your Grace's most humble, &c*. * This is the Dedication mentioned by Dr. Johnson himself in Boswell's Life, vol. ii. 226. I should not else have suspected what has so little of his manner. C. BARETTI'S DICTIONARY ofthe ENGLISH and ITALIAN LANGUAGES. 2 vols. 4°. 1760. To his Excellency DON FELIX, Marquis of ABREU and BERTODANO, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from his Catholic Majesty to the King of Great Britain. MY LORD, THAT acuteness of penetration into characters and designs, and that nice discernment of human passions and practices which have raised you to your present height of station and dignity of employment, have long shown you that dedicatory addresses are written for the sake of the author more frequently than of the patron; and though they profess only reverence and zeal, are commonly dictated by interest or vanity. I shall therefore not endeavour to conceal my motives, but confess that the Italian Dictionary is dedicated to your Excellency, that I might gratify my vanity, by making it known, that in a country where I am a stranger, I have been able, without any external H 3 external recommendation, to obtain the notice and countenance of a nobleman so eminent for knowledge and ability, that in his twenty-third year he was sent as Plenipotentiary to superintend, at Aix-la-Chapelle, the interests of a nation remarkable above all others for gravity and prudence: and who at an age, when very few are admitted to publick trust, transacts the most important affairs between two of the greatest monarchs of the world. If I could attribute to my own merits the favours which your Excellency every day confers upon me, I know not how much my pride might be inflamed; but when I observe the extensive benevolence and boundless liberality by which all who have the honour to approach you, are dismissed more happy than they come, I am afraid of raising my own value, since I dare not ascribe it so much to my power of pleasing as your willingness to be pleased. Yet as every man is inclined to flatter himself, I am desirous to hope that I am not admitted to greater intimacy than others without some qualifications for so advantageous a distinction, and shall think it my duty to justify, by constant respect and sincerity, the favours which you have been pleased to show me. I am, my Lord, London, Jan. 12, 1760. Your Excellency's most humble and most obedient Servant, J. BARETTI. The ENGLISH WORKS of ROGER ASCHAM, edited by JAMES BENNET. 4° 1767. To the Right Hon. ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, Earl of SHAFTESBURY, Baron ASHLEY, Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotularum of DORSETSHIRE, F. R. S.. MY LORD, HAVING endeavoured, by an elegant and useful edition, to recover the esteem of the Publick to an Author undeservedly neglected, the only care which I now owe to his memory, is that of inscribing his works to a patron whose acknowledged eminence of character may awaken attention and attract regard. I have not suffered the zeal of an editor so far to take possession of my mind, as that I should obtrude upon your Lordship any productions unsuitable to the dignity of your rank or of your sentiments. Ascham was not only the chief ornament of a celebrated college, but visited foreign countries, frequented courts, and lived in familiarity with statesmen and princes; not only instructed scholars in literature, but formed ELIZABETH to empire.. To propagate the works of such a writer will not be unworthy of your Lordship's patriotism: for I know not what greater benefits you can confer on your country, than that of preserving worthy names from oblivion, by joining them with your own. I am, my Lord, Your Lordship's most obliged, most obedient and most humble Servant, JAMES BENNET, PREFACE to "NEW TABLES of INTEREST: Designed to answer, in the most correct and expeditious manner, the common purposes of business, particularly the business of the Public Funds. By JOHN PAYNE, of the Bank of England." 1758. AMONG the writers of fiction, whose business is to furnish that entertainment which fancy perpetually demands, it is a standing plea, that the beauties of nature are now exhausted: that imitation has exerted all its power, and that nothing more can be done for the service of their mistress, than to exhibit a perpetual transposition of known objects, and draw new pictures, not by introducing new images, but by giving new lights and shades, a new arrangement and colouring to the old. This plea has been cheerfully admitted: and fancy, led by the hand of a skilful guide, treads over again the flowery path she has often trod before, as much enamoured with every new diversification of the same prospect, as with the first appearance of it. In the regions of science, however, there is not the same indulgence: the understanding and the judgment travel there in the pursuit of truth, whom they always expect to find in one simple form, free from the dis guises of dress and ornament: and, as they travel with laborious step and a fixed eye, they are content to stop when the shades of night darken the prospect, and patiently wait the radiance of a new morning, to lead them forward in the path they have chosen, which, however thorny, or however steep, is severely preferred to the most pleasing excursions that bring them no nearer to the object of their search. The plea, there fore, |