245 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 265 265 25 25 25 205 205 205 22

ΤΟ

RICHARD GREENE, ESQ.

OF LICHFIELD.

MY DEAR GREene,

F regard for a fellow-citizen, esteem for

IF

his personal qualities, and respect for his liberal cultivation of the Fine Arts, be some apology for 'picking and stealing' his Name, -you will not refuse me the benefit of that plea in thus allying yours with mine. But

"The Truth, dear Richard, needs no aid of speech, So take it in the very Words of Creech."*

"Libellum accipe, non multis quidem vigiliis et acri
studiorum intentione,-aliquâ tamen diligentia, ela-
boratum. Neque enim ad Te elegantissimi Ingenii
Virum mitti aliquod debet, quod impolitum nimis
foret et rude; Lepore, Vi, et Acumine omni desti-
tutum."

In plain English, believe me ever,
My dear GREENE,

Your Friend and Admirer,

THOMAS HENRY WHITE.

24, Waterloo Crescent, Dover.

Feast of St. John Baptist, 1845.

* See his Preface to Lucretius.

"How many things are ill done because they are only once done !"

No one, however, appears to have been more bent on ascertaining the practical truth of this Adage than he of Baghdad:

"Famed Mariner, whose merciless Narrations
Drove every Friend and Kinsman out of patience;
Till fain to find a Guest who deem'd them shorter,
He deign'd to tell them over to a Porter."*

Now I am pretty much in the worthy Sindbad's predicament, but still more in

*See Scott's Search after Happiness.

that of the celebrated John Bell, of whom it was affirmed that he had three "hands o' write", one that he could read himself,

another which the privileged eye of his clerk alone could decypher, and a third perfectly unintelligible to both.

Without, however, precisely criminating myself to this extent, one thing is clear, that no mortal would have waded through my fluctuating Penmanship, even supposing I could have endured the sight of my Vagrant Offspring in such an Erysipelas of Scrawl.

"I can read your Print-hand very well," saith Goldsmith's booby Squire; "but here there are such handles and shanks and dashes, that one can scarce tell the head from the tail!"

It is because I cordially entertain the admirable Tony Lumpkin's ideas on this subject, and am laudably desirous that others should take pleasure in reading what I have taken some pains in writing, that I hasten to emancipate my pages from the Fetters of

Manuscript, and array them in fair Typographical Garlands.

"Ut enim Pictores, et ii qui Signa fabricantur, et vero etiam Poetæ, suum quisque Opus a Vulgo considerari vult, ut si quid reprehensum sit a pluribus, id corrigatur: hique et secum et cum aliis quid in eo peccatum sit exquirunt : sic aliorum judicio permulta nobis et facienda et non facienda, et mutanda, et corrigenda sunt.

CICERO DE OFFICIIS, L. I. c. 41.