Another or third volume of this work will be published in October, 1800; and all persons, inclined to communicate complete memoirs or authentic materials relative to any distinguished person, are requested to address the same, under their real signature, to Mr. PHILLIPS, No. 71, St. Paul's Church-Yard, previously to the first of July next. Seyton 8-16-28 17739 ADVERTISEMENT. THE favourable reception with which the former volume of this work was honoured, the rapid sale of two very large editions in Great Britain, and the avidity with which it was translated into foreign languages and re-published in Ireland and America, render it unnecessary for the editor to expatiate on the nature and utility of the design. In the preface to that volume, he described. at large the peculiar advantages possessed by contemporary over posthumous biography; and he conceives that the spirit of candour and moderation, in which the several memoirs. were written, tended to rescue this species of writing from much of the obloquy under which it had previously laboured. The same spirit has directed the formation of the present volume; and the editor hopes it will be found that the various WRITERS of the following A 2 following pages have fully availed themselves of the advantages resulting from living observation, uninfluenced by the prejudices which too frequently disfigure the opinions of contemporaries. It The memoirs in the present, as in the former, volume have been communicated by the persons whose initials or assumed signatures are affixed to them. These persons in general have an immediate knowledge of the individuals respecting whom they write, and are able to bestow on their respective articles a due degree of authenticity and copiousness. results, however, as a consequence of this necessary arrangement, that the work contains much variation of style, and considerable inequality of literary merit. Thus, while some articles only recommend themselves as containing a simple statement of facts, others, communicated by gentlemen of distinguished literary attainments, abound in moral and critical observations, and combine, with UNQUESTIONABLE AUTHENTICITY, the graces of elegant composition. It is presumed that no sentiment has place in this volume which can give a moment's pain to any of the personages whose memoirs are inserted. Corrections of any such passages, should they unfortunately exist, and valuable and authentic communications or additions to any of the articles, will henceforward be affixed to each subsequent volume in the form of an Appendix. London, October, 1799. A 3 CON |
