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JOSEPH JOHNSON, No. 72, St. Paul's Church-Yard, LONDON,

MDCCLXXIV.

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DORNING RASBOTHAM, Esq.

OF BIRCH HOUSE, NEAR BOLTON,

LANCASHIR

E.

I

DEAR SIR,

F I may take the liberty of prefixing the name of a friend to a work which cari pretend to little more than the merit of compilation, but which the indulgence of the public has conducted a fecond time to the press, there are many reasons why I fhould defire to pay this tribute of refpect to you.

EXCLUSIVE of the inftances of regard with which you have honoured me; that happy combination of elegant retirement and focial intercourse, of attention to public duties and cultivation

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tivation of the fine arts, and, particularly, that refined tafte for the beauties of poetry, and that talent for producing those beauties, for all which Mr. Rafbotham is fo well known and fo juftly admired, will, I am fure, be thought to ftamp a peculiar propriety on my intentions.

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ACCEPT, therefore, dear Sir, this teftimony of regard as proceeding from the fincereft fentiments of efteem and friendship of

Your most obedient,

WARRINGTON,

NOVEMBER I, 1774.

and affectionate

bumble Servant,

JOHN AIKIN.

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PREFACE.

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N converfing with a few of my friends who were lovers of poetry, I have frequently joined them in lamenting that the number of excellent fongs which our language afforded, were fo difperfed through a variety of authors, or overwhelmed in injudicious collections, that it was a most difficult matter to difscover and enjoy the riches of this kind which we poffeffed. We observed that every collection of fongs, without exception, was degraded by dullness, or debafed by indecency; and that fong-writing Scarcely feemed in any of them to be confidered as a pleafing Species of poetical compofition, but merely as

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