Page:The history of Tom Jones (1749 Volume 1).pdf/21

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DEDICATION.

Yet ſurely you might have gratified my Ambition, from this ſingle Confidence, that I ſhall always prefer the Indulgence of your Inclinations to the Satisfaction of my own. A very ſtrong Inſtance of which I ſhall give you in this Addreſs; in which I am determined to follow the Example of all other Dedicators, and will conſider not what my Patron really deſerves to have written, but what he will be beſt pleaſed to read.

Without further Preface then, I here preſent you with the Labours of ſome Years of my Life. What Merit theſe Labours have is already known to yourſelf. If, from your favourable Judgment, Ihave