labour, it is useless to the general reader to point out. To the critical collator, it would be superfluous.
For the principal part of the contents of the eighteenth and nineteenth volumes, the Editor is alone responsible. The authority on which the miscellaneous tracts are adopted is in general given; and the articles in the Epistolary Correspondence sufficiently speak for themselves, and need no apology. Some of these are now first printed from the originals; and "Letters written by wise men," says an experienced writer, "are of all the works of men, in my judgment, the best[1]."
One advantage at least this edition possesses: a complete general Index, compiled by a Gentleman to whom the revision of the whole work at the press has been consigned by the proprietors, and whose kind attention has much facilitated the labours of the editor.
For the critical notes the reader is almost wholly indebted to the late Mr. Sheridan. Those which are historical are selected from the former publications of lord Orrery, Dr. Delany, Dr. Hawkesworth, Deane Swift, esq., Mr. Bowyer, Dr. Birch, Mr. Faulkner, and the present editor.
