To Sir William Mayne, Bart. [By George Pearch]

[1]

Sir,
As the representative of my native city, permit me to dedicate this improved edition of a collection of poems to you, hoping they will not prove less worthy your patronage, when I inform you they are not a hasty selection; great attention having been paid to the opinions of some of our first critics. The Index will inform you of the very respectable names, who have contributed to this work, many of whose pieces contained in these volumes are omitted in the several editions of their works.

Agreeable to the various dispositions and interests of mankind; so have been their different motives for dedication.--We read of Evar, king of Arabia, dedicating his book on the Nature of Precious Stones to Nero, because there was an (E) in his name, as well as the emperor's; nor are our modern authors less singular in this respect than the ancients; witness an ingenious poet, who addressed some of his poems to a noble earl, the motive for which address, he says, was not because he was a judge of the sciences, or the patron of learned men, but as having the honour to be born in the same county with his lordship. A Reverend Divine dedicates his Christian Discourses to a Royal- Arch-Druidess, styling himself Chyndonax of Mount Haemus, Druid. Another, in a virulent humour, bespatters a Bishop in his satyrical dedication of Sermons; while many, not content with the various objects of this world, have traversed the planets for a patron. With less romantic views, I have been principally anxious that this inscription should be to a meritorious, as well as a distinguished, character. My ideas naturally lead me to solicit the present honour of addressing you, whose senatorial abilities have been so deservedly applauded in a neighbouring isle, and whose domestic virtues, tho' more confined, are not less conspicuous in the extensive circle of your friends.
I have the honour to be, with the utmost respect and esteem, Sir,
your very obliged,
and most devoted
humble servant,

GEO. PEARCH