[ vi ]
I cannot but congratulate myself, therefore, on the strict: intimacy with which you have so long indulged me, and, at the same time, be thankful to you for the advantages it has often procured me in foreign parts.
During an absence of five years from my country and friends, whilst I was engaged in such pursuits as were indispensably necessary to fit me for more extensive usefulness in my profession, the almost uninterrupted enjoyment of your company, or correspondence, contributed much to make such a separation more easy and supportable. It will always give me unspeakable pleasure to reflect upon the variety of scenes through which we have passed, and the entertainment and improvement we have met with, in visiting the principal cities and feats of science in Great-Britain, Holland, France and Italy; places celebrated for the birth or residence of men of the most illustrious genius in the
