O F Abelard and Heloife. To which is prefix'd A PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THEIR Lives, Amours, and Misfortunes. BY THE LATE JOHN HUGHES, ESQ. Together with the POEM OF ELOIS A TO ABELARD. BY MR. POPE. And, (to which is now added) the POEM OF ABELARD TO ELQIS A, BY MRS. MADAN. LONDON: Printed for W. OSBORNE, and T. GRIFFIN in MDCCLXXXII. IT T is very furprifing that the Letters of Abelard and Heloife have not fooner appeared in English, fince it is generally allowed, by all who have feen them in other languages, that they are written with the greatest paffion of any in this kind which are extant. And it is certain that the Letters from a Nun to a Cavalier, which have fo long been known and admired among us, are in all refpects inferior to them. Whatever thofe were, these are known to be genuine Pieces occafioned by an amour which had very extraordinary confequences, and made a great noife at the time when it happened, being between two of the most distinguished Perfons of that age. Thefe Letters, therefore, being truly written by the Perfons themselves, whofe names they bear, and who were both remarkable for their genius and learning, as well as by a moit extravagant paffion for each other, are every where full of fentiments of the heart, (which are not to be imitated in a feigned ftory,) and touches of Nature, much more moving than any which could flow from the Pen of a Writer of Novels, or enter into the imagination of any who had not felt the like emotions and diftreffes. They were originally written in Latin, and are extant in a Collection of the Works of Abelard, printed at Paris in the year 1616. With what elegance and beauty of ftile they were written in that language, will fufficiently appear to the learned Reader, even by thofe few citations which are fet at |