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profeffes a particular love and esteem for him; and if the picture bears a just resemblance of the original, Dr. King must have been a true humourist. Indeed he has drawn his own character excellently in the following verses found in his pocket at his death, being just fresh written with a lead pencil:

I fing the various chances of the world,

Thro' which men are by Fate or Fortune hurl'd.
'Tis by no fcheme or method that I go,

But paint in verse my notions as they flow;
With heat the wanton images purfue,
Fond of the old, yet still creating new;
Fancy myself in fome fecure retreat,
Refolve to be content, and fo be great.

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THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER.

Ir is now-a-days the hard fate of fuch as pretend to be authors that they are not permitted to be masters of their own works; for if fuch papers (however imperfect) as may be called a Copy of them, either by à fervant or any other means, come to the hands of a bookfeller, he never confiders whether it be for the perfon's reputation to come into the world, whether it is agreeable to his fentiments, whether to his style or correЯness, or whether he has for fome time looked over it; nor doth he care what name or character he puts to it so he imagines he may get by it.

It was the fate of the following Poem to be fo ufed, and printed with as much imperfection and as many mistakes as a bookfeller that has common fenfe could imagine fhould pass upon the Town, especially in an age fo polite and critical as the prefent.

Thefe following Letters and Poem were at the prefs fome time before the other paper pretending to the fame title was crept out; and they had elfe, as the learned fay, groaned under the prefs till fuch time as the sheets had, one by one, been perufed and corrected not only by the Author but his friends, whose judgment as he is fenfible he wants, fo is he proud to own that they fometimes condlefcend to afford him.

For many faults that at first seem small yet create unpardonable errours. The number of the verfe turns

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THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER.

upon the harshness of a fyllable, and the laying a stress upon improper words will make the most correct piece ridiculous, False concord, tenses, and grammar, nonfenfe, impropriety, and confufion, may go down with fome perfons; but it should not be in the power of a bookfeller to lampoon an author, and tell him "You did write all this; I have got it; and you shall "ftand to the scandal, and I will have the benefit:" yet this is the prefent case, notwithstanding there are above threefcore faults of this nature; verfes tranfpofed, fome added, others altered, or rather that fhould have been altered, and near forty omitted. The Author does not value himself upon the whole; but if he fhews his efteem for Horace, and can by any means provoke perfons to read fo useful a treatise; if he fhews his averfion to the introduction of luxury, which may tend to the corruption of manners, and declares his love to the old British hospitality, charity, and valour, when the arms of the family, the old pikes, mufkets, and halberts, hung up in the hall over the long table, and the marrowbones lay on the floor, and Chevy Chafe and The Old Courtier of the Queen's were placed over the carved mantlepiece, and the beef and brown bread were carried every day to the poor, he defires little farther than that the reader would for the future give all fuch booksellers as are before fpoken of no manner of encouragement.

TO DR. LISTER AND OTHERS.

LETTER I. TO MR.

DEAR SIR,

THE happiness of hearing now and then from you extremely delights me; for I muit confefs moft of my other friends are so much taken up with politicks or fpeculations, that either their hopes or fears give them little leisure to perufe fuch parts of learning as lie remote,and are fit only for the clofets of the curious. How bleft are you at London, where you have new books of all forts! whilft we at a greater diftance, being destitute of such improvements, must content ourselves with the old ftore, and thumb the Clafficks, as if we were never to get higher than our Tully or our Virgil.

You tantalize me only when you tell me of the edition of a book by the ingenious Dr. Lifter, which you say is a treatise De Condimentis et Opfoniis Veterum, "Of the Sauces and Soups of the Ancients," as I take it. Give me leave to ufe an expreffion which though vulgar, yet upon this occafion is juft and proper; you have made my mouth water, but have not sent me wherewithal to fatisfy my appetite.

I have raised a thousand notions to myself only from the title. Where could such a treasure lie hid? what manuscripts have been collated? under what

emperour was it written? might it not have been in the reign of Heliogabalus, who though vicious, and in fome things fantastical, yet was not incurious in the grand affair of eating?

Confider, dear Sir! in what uncertainties we must remain at present. You know my neighbour Mr. Greatrix is a learned antiquary. I shewed him your letter, which threw him into fuch a dubiousness, and indeed perplexity, of mind, that the next day he durft not put any catfup in his fifh fauce, nor have his be loved pepper, oil, and lemon, with his partridge, left before he had feen Dr. Lifter's book he might tranf grefs in ufing fomething not common to the Ancients.

Difpatch it therefore to us with all speed, for I expect wonders from it. Let me tell you I hope in the first place it will in fome measure remove the barbarity of our prefent education; for what hopes can there be of any progress in learning whilft our gentlemen fuffer their fons at Westminster, Eaton, and Winchester, to eat nothing but falt with their mutton, and vinegar with their roaft beef, upon holydays? What extensiveness can there be in their fouls, efpecially when, upon their going thence to the univerfity, their knowledge in culinary matters is feldom enlarged, and their diet continues very much the fame, and as to fauces they are in profound ignorance?

It were to be wifhed therefore that every family had a French tutor; for befides his being groom, gar

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