[Dedication of the First Edition, 1691.]
To His Grace the
Duke of Ormond[1].
My Lord,
THE Celebrated Author of the following Treatise, had not only the Honour to be known to Your Grace's Grandfather, the late illustrious Duke of ORMOND, but was likewise held by him in that just Esteem, which he never fail'd of expressing towards Men of || Learning and Ingenuity[2]. This was a sufficient Encouragement to me (having the Manuscript-Copy delivered into my Hands by a Worthy and Intimate Friend[3] of the Authors, to dispose of it to the Press for the publick Benefit) to Address it to Your Grace's Patronage. You are so true a Successor to all the generous Virtues of your Ancestry, that I cannot doubt of Your Favourable Reception of this posthumous Work. Your Generosity, that takes all occasions of exerting itself towards the Living, cannot fail in do-||ing Justice to the Memory of the Dead. More especially to such Persons as in their Life took care to oblige Posterity. The usefulness of the ensuing Discourse at this time, when there is so fair a
- ↑ James Butler, second Duke of Ormond, grandson of the first Duke and son of that Thomas, Earl of Ossory, whose death Petty so much lamented (7th Rept. Hist, MSS. Comm., 742) was born in Dublin Castle, 29 April, 1665. He served at the head of the Life-guards in King William's army, was present at the battle of the Boyne, and accompanied his royal master to the Hague in January, 1691. His career after his return to England did not altogether justify the high expectations which his friends had formed of him. Died 1745.
- ↑ On Ormond's appreciation of Petty see note, p. 8.
- ↑ Probably by Sir Robert Southwell, see note 3, p. 131.
