BY ALICIA LEFANU, GRAND-DAUGHTER TO THE LATE THOMAS SHERIDAN, M.A. IN FOUR VOLUMES. VOL. I. Quando scende in nobil petto E vi siano i Numi amici Quanto avverso il ciel vi fù. METASTASIO.-DEMETRIO. London: PRINTED FOR SHERWOOD, NEELY, AND JONES, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1816. PREFACE. DESIROUS of holding a medium both in principle and language, between that severity which forbids the existence of passion, and consequently prevents the merit of overcoming it, and that enthusiasm, which, dazzled by its wild and fitful splendors, mistakes, or wilfully confounds, in every page, its destructive fires, with the awful and lovely lights of virtue, the author has found difficulties in the execution of her work, which may not, perhaps, be accepted as a sufficient apology for its many imperfections. |