SI QUIS OMNINO FIGMENTIS DELECTETUR, IS SI PRUDENTER EFFINGAT PII VIRI SIMULACRUM, QUOCUNQUE NOMINE..... EX IPSIS CHRISTI DECRETIS, SIC UT PRIMUM CHRISTIANÆ PIETATIS VIM PENITUS HABEAT COGNITAM ET PERSPECTAM, DEINDE SCITE ILLIUS EXPRIMAT IMAGINEM, IS MIHI FORTASSE TOLERABITUR. ETIAMSI QUANTUMVIS GEMME NITOREM AC LUCEM EFFINGAT ARTIFEX, CERTE NATIVAM GEMME VIM NUNQUAM ASSEQUITUR IMITATIO. ERASMUS. ΤΟ THOMAS ELLAMES WITHINGTON, ESQ. OF CULCHETH HALL, IN THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER. MY DEAR SIR, WHEN I consider your rank and influence in society, and the principal characters in my work, I can see no impropriety in availing myself of your kind permission to dedicate these humble pages to you. I am willing to think that you may view them, even in future years, when the writer has past beyond the boundaries of mortality, with no small interest, as containing the sentiments and wishes of one who, whatever his faults and imperfections were, honestly laboured to promote the temporal and eternal happiness of his fellow-creatures. So far as the tale is concerned, the book is by no means valuable or interesting. The machinery, such |
