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DEDICATION.
Commendation by only deſerving it; and the utmoſt which the Faults of your Friends can hope for is your Silence; or, perhaps, if too ſeverely accuſed, your gentle Palliation.
In ſhort, Sir, I ſuſpect, that your Diſlike of public Praiſe is your true Objection to granting my Requeſt. I have obſerved, that you have, in common with my two other Friends, an Unwillingneſs to hear the leaſt Mention of your own Virtues; that, as a great Poet ſays of one of you, (he might juſtly have ſaid it of all three) you
If Men of this Diſpoſition are as careful to ſhun Applauſe, as othersare
