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out on a viſit to ſome very dear friends in Ireland, whom I had not ſeen for a long time. During my ſtay there, I was not a little pleaſed to learn from every quarter that my work had not been diſapproved of by the publick; and on my return to England laſt ſummer was ſtill more highly gratified by your warm, and I fear too partial, approbation of my labours; by that of Mr. Burke, whoſe mind is of ſuch a graſp as to embrace at once the greateſt and the minuteſt objects, and who, in the midſt of his numerous and important avocations, has always found time for the calmer purſuits of philoſophy and polite literature; by that of the moſt amiable and judicious friend whom we and the publick have lately had the irreparable misfortune to loſe, Sir Joſhua Reynolds; of that excellent critick and profound ſcholar, Dr. Joſeph Warton; and of many others, whoſe encomiums would ſtamp a value on any literary performance. When I mention theſe respected names, let me ſhelter myſelf under the example of the great poet who preceded, me in this undertaking:
