OF A BELARD AND HELOISE. To which is prefix'd a Particular ACCOUNT of their Lives, Amours, and Misfortunes : Extracted chiefly from Tranflated from the French By the late JOHN HUGHES, Efq. To which is now first added, The POEM of ELOISA to ABELARD. The NINTH EDITION. LONDON: Printed for JAMES RIVINGTON and J. FLETCHER, MDCCLX, PREFACE. T is very furprizing that the Letters of Abelard and Heloife have not fooner appeared in English, fince it is generally allowed by all who have seen 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 those were, thefe 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 moft diftinguished Perfons of that Age. Thefe Letters therefore being truly written by the Perfons themselves, whofe Names they bear, and whe were both remarkable for their Genius and Learning, as well as by a moft extravagant Paffion for each other, are every where full of Sentiments of the Heart, (which are not to be imitated in a feigned Story) and Touches of Nature, much more moving than any which could flow from the Pen of a Writer of Novels, or A 2 enter |