TO THE ABBÉ DE L'ILLE THE VIRGIL OF FRANCE THIS NEW EDITION OF THE LIFE OF THE BRITISH HOMER IS INSCRIBED BY THE EDITORS P. J. OTTO, J. DECKER, F. G. LEVRAULT. D. EDICATION Τ Ο Τ Η Ε R E V. JOSEPH WARTON, D. D. &c. MY PLEASANT AND RESPECTABLE FRIEND! Ix prefixing your name to this volume, I feel and confefs the double influence of an affectionate and of an ambitious desire to honor you and myself. Our lost and lamented Friend GIBBON has told us, I think very truly, in dedicating a juvenile work to his father, that there are but two kinds of Dedications, which can do honor either to the Patron or the Author the first arising from literary esteem, the second from perfonal affection. If either of these two characteristics may be sufficient to give propriety to a Dedication, I have little to apprehend for the present, which has certainly the advantage of uniting the two. The kind and friendly manner in which you commended the first edition of this Life might |