GENUINE LETTERS BETWEEN HENRY and FRANCES. Felices ter et ampliùs Quos irrupta tenet copula; nec malis Divulfus querimoniis, Supremâ citiûs folvet amor die. HOR. Lib. I. Od. 13. The THIRD EDITION, Revised, Corrected, Enlarged, and Improved, By the AUTHORS. VOL. I. ·BODI LONDON: SOON after the First edition was published in Ireland, the following letter appeared in Faulkner's Journal; the writer unknown. I To Mr. ABRAHAM BRADLEY, Bookfeller. SIR, HAVE read the Series of Letters between HENRY and FRANCES, lately published at your fhop, and have never met with any thing in the literary way which amused or entertained me fo much. Whoever is capable of forming any judgment upon writing, muft acquiefce in the title of their being GENUINE; for tho' there are many fubjects treated of in this collection, which are pot the proper bufinefs of lovers, yet there is apparently the fame ftile, fpirit, and gallantry running thro' the whole. I never read higher love-letters in my life, without the bombaft of romance, or the levity of novel; they are composed of the most elegant fondness, lively wit, just fenfe, refined moral, and ingenious criticism; all which address is neither of ufe or ufage in modern amour; but this pair of polite and happy lovers feem to have used their paffions as they were defigned by Providence, to infpirit their reafon, and to actuate their moral, not to fubject thefe to their arbitrary dominion. I do not know the authors, and have therefore no other method of conveying my fentiment and approbation of their writings, but by directing this letter to you. |