particulars, quite contrary to the common courfe of action, I can affure you, gentlemen, in respect of the ftrange things, that however wonderful they may appear to you, yet they are, exclufive of a few decorations and figures, (neceffary in all works), ftrictly true; and as to the difference of my life, from that of the generality of men, let it only be confidered, that I was born in London, and carried an infant to Ireland, where I learned the Irish language, and became intimately acquainted with its original inhabitants: -that I was not only a lover of books from the time I could spell them to this hour; but read with an extraordinary pleasure, before I was twenty, the works of feveral of the fathers, and all the old romances; which tinged my ideas with a certain piety and extravagance, that rendered my virtues as well as my imperfections particularly mine:--that by hard measure, I was compelled to be an adventurer, when very young, and had not a friend in the universe but what I could make by good fortune, and my own addrefs: that my wandering life, wrong conduct, and the iniquity of my kind, with a paflion for extraordinary things and places, brought me into several great diftreffes; and that I had quicker and more wonderful deliverances from them than people in tribulation genrally receive that the dull, the formal, and the vifionary, the hard-honeft man, and A 4 the the poor-liver, are a people I have had no connexion with; but have always kept company with the polite, the generous, the lively, the rational, and the brightest freethinkers of this age that befide all this, I was in the days of my youth, one of the most active men in the world, at every exercise; and to a degree of rafhness, often venturous, when there was no neceffity for running any hazards in diebus illis, I have defcended head-foremost from a high cliff, into the ocean, to swim, when I could, and ought, to have gone off a rock not a yard, from the furface of the deep. I have fwam near a mile and a half out in the fea, to a ship that lay off, went on board, got clothes from the mate of the veffel, and proceeded with them to the next port; while my companion I left on the beach concluded me drowned, and related my fad fate in the town.-I have taken a cool thrust over a bottle, without the leaft animofity on either fide; but both of us depending on our fkill in the fmail fword, for prefervation from mifchief. Such things as thefe I now call wrong, and mention them only as famples of a rafhness I was once fubject to, as an opportunity happened to come in the way. Let all thee things be taken into the account, and I imagine, gentlemen, that what may at first fg teem ftrange, and next to incredible, vi, o confidering thefe particulars, not long may long remain fo, in your opinion; though you think the relator an odd man. As to that, I have nothing to fay. And if oddness confifts in fpirit, freedom of thought, and a zeal for the divine unity; in a taste for what is natural, antique, romantic, and wild; in honouring women, who are admirable for goodness, letters, and arts; and in thinking, after all the scenes I have gone through, that every thing here is vanity; except that virtue and charity, which gives us a right to expect beyond the grave; and procures us, in this world, the direction of infinite wisdom, the protection of infinite power, and the friendThip of infinite goodness;-then, may it be written on my stone,-Here lies an odd man. Thus much, gentlemen, I thought proper to fay to you, that by being acquainted with the particulars relative to the complexion, and defign of the author, you might the easier and the better comprehend the various things you will find in the work he dedicates to you. I have only to add, that I wish you all happiness; that your heads may lack no ointment, and your garments be always white and odoriferous: but efpecially, may you prefs on, Eke true critics, towards perfection; and may blifs, glory, and honour, be your reward and your portion. Barbican, Aug. 1. 1756. N. B. What refers to the Notes is diftinguished thus ( ). : 17 (5. Of Mrs. OHara's and Mrs. Grafton's grottos) 20 A converfation relating to the miracle at Babel 60 27 The death and character of Mifs Noel 28 A reflexion on the death of Mifs Noel 29 The author leaves the university, and goes to fee his father in the country, but has a miterable recep→ 31 (9. A fummary of the author's notion of God and 32 (10. An account of a little public house, called the Conniving-houfe, on the fide of the bay of 34 Four remarkable things, while the ftorm lafted 89 35 The paffengers land at Whitehaven, and divide. 39 A journey over that part of Stanemore mountains до 3 |