THE WORLD. ORIGINAL DEDICATIONS. I. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE PHILIP, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD. MY LORD, THAT I presume to dedicate the first volume of The World to Your Lordship, will I hope be forgiven me. It is not enough that I can flatter myself with having been frequently honoured with your correspondence; I would insinuate it to the public, that under the sanction of your Lordship's name, I may hope for a more favourable reception from my readers. If it should be expected upon this occasion, that I should point out which papers are your Lordship's, and which my own, I must beg to be excused; for while, like the Cuckoo in the fable, I am mixing my note with the Nightingale's, I cannot resist the vanity of crying out, How sweetly we Birds sing! If I knew of any great or amiable qualification that your Lordship did not really possess, I would, according to the usual custom of dedications. bestow it freely but till I am otherwise instructed, I shall rest satisfied with paying my most grateful acknowledgments to your Lordship, and with subscribing myself, Your Lordship's obliged, and most obedient servant, ADAM FITZ-ADAM. SIR, II. TO THE HONOURABLE HORACE WALPOLE, Esq. I TAKE the liberty of prefixing your name to a volume of the World, as it gives me an opportunity, not only of making you my acknowledgments for the essays you have honoured me with, but also of informing the public to whom I have been obliged. That you may read this address without a blush, it shall have no flattery in it. To confess the truth, I mean to compliment myself: and I know not how to do it more effectually, than by thus signifying to my readers, that in the conduct of this work, I have not been thought unworthy of your correspondence. I am, Sir, Your most obedient, humble servant, ADAM FITZ-ADAM. 111. ΤΟ RICHARD OWEN CAMBRIDGE, Esq. SIR, As you have been so partial to these Papers, as to think them in some degree serviceable to Morality, or at least to those inferior duties of life, which the French call les petites morales; and as you have shown the sincerity of this opinion, by the support you have given to them, I beg leave to prefix your name to this third volume, and to subscribe myself, Sir, your obliged, and most faithful humble servant, ADAM FITZ-ADAM. MY LORD, IV. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CORK. It is usual in churches, when an organ, an altarpiece, or some other valuable ornament, is given by the bounty of any particular person, to set forth in very conspicuous characters the name of the benefactor. In imitation of this custom, I take the liberty of prefixing your Lordship's name to a volume of the World, that I may signify to the public by whose bounty it has been ornamented. But your Lordship is not the only one of your family to whom the World has been indebted; and it is with great pleasure that I embrace this occasion of making my acknowledgments to the Earl of Cork, as it gives me an opportunity at the same time of confessing my obligations to Mr. Boyle. I will not offend your Lordship with the common flattery of dedications, having always observed that praise is least pleasing, where it is most due: a consideration that obliges me to add no more, than that I am, My Lord, your Lordship's obliged, most humble, and most obedient servant, ADAM FITZ-ADAM. V. TO SOAME JENYNS, Esq. ONE OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS FOR TRADE AND PLANTATIONS. SIR, To promote the circulation of these small volumes, by limiting their number to no more than six, it was thought adviseable to put a stop to the paper of the World, at a time when the demand for it greatly exceeded my expectation, and while it was the only fashionable vehicle, in which men of rank and genius chose to convey their sentiments to the public, To extend this circulation-for I confess myself a self-interested person-I have separately addressed the first five volumes to those of my correspondents whose pieces are the most numerous, and whose names and characters do me the greatest honour, It will not therefore, I hope, displease you, if among these favourite names you happen to discover your own; it being impossible for me to say any thing more to the advantage of this work, than that many of the essays in it were written by Mr. Jenyns. I am, SIR, Your most obliged and most obedient humble servant, ADAM FITZ-ADAM, DEAR SIR, VI. TO MR. MOORE, IN the list of those whom I am proud to call my assistants in this work, and to the principal of whom, |