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DEFORMITY:

ΑΝ

ESSAY

By WILLIAM HAY, Esq.

Te confule; dic tibi quis fis:

• E calo defcendit γνωθι σεαύλον.

Juv. Sat. xi.

ADVERTISEMENT.

T

O promote the Sale of this Piece, Mr. DODSLEY was for dedicating it to fome reigning Toaft; but it was thought more for his Intereft to fend it into the World, with the Motto inscribed on the Golden Apple adjudged to Venus; for then a Thousand Goddesses might seize it as their own.

DEDI

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DEDICATION.

DET VR PVLCHRIORL

b

TO THE

GREATEST BEAUTY.

DEFORMITY;

I

AN

ESSA Y.

T is offenfive for a Man to speak much of himfelf; and few can do it with fo good a Grace

as Montaigne. I wish I could; or that I could be half fo [a] entertaining or inftructive. My Subject, however, will be my Apology; and I am fure it will draw no Envy upon me. Bodily Deformity is visible to every Eye; but the Effects of it are known to very few; intimately known to none, but those who feel them; and they generally are not inclined to reveal them. As therefore I am furnished with the neceffary Materials, I will treat this uncommon Subject at large; and to view it in a philofophical Light is a Speculation which may be useful to Perfons fo oddly (I will not fay unhappily) diftinguished; and perhaps not unentertaining to others.

[a] The Marquis of Halifax, in a Letter to Charles Cotton, Efq. who translated Montaigne's Essays, fays, it is the Book in the World, with which he is best entertained; and that Montaigne did not write for Praise, but to give the World a true Picture of himself and of Mankind.

I do

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