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THE WORLD.

BEHOLD a Novice!........I have

just ventured my foot on the first step of the arduous ladder leading to literary fame; and am already giddy with the temerity.

Oh, let me deprecate the severity of criticism....and meet the cheering smiles of your indulgence!

It was my intention to have offered You a perfect translation of Wieland's Proteus ;.....but, on a revisal of the

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work.....I find it so involved in ab

VOL. I.

A

struse and learned disquisition, that I have altered my plan.

In so doing,.....I am aware I have robbed the genius of my author, and that he will not thank me for the theft....However, I wish these Volumes to prove a pastime.....not a study.

I shall compare them to a foreign Olio....in the cookery of which...I have not exactly followed my exquisite German receipt....Still, I have preserved the sauce picquante, and endeavoured to suit it to the English palate. ›› "No.....This is a vile s is a vile simile......Suffer

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in all the sterling magnificence of a Birth-day's splendor.

I select the individual Beauty, dismantled of her studied,....formal,...... elegancies......and present her, habited in the gay,light,.....sylph-like...... drapery of modern fashion.....Every limb and feature expressing its own peculiar grace.....fascinating the eye.... and captivating the heart........of each beholder.

In the portrait of my Hero,...are displayed the fatal consequences of fol lowing extremes.........He models his principles on reading;......and, without the least knowledge of Men,......or Manners,........enthusiastically pursues

his own wild fancies.....defying custom ....prejudice,....even ridicule.........And, as these extraordinary flights produce extraordinary adventures.......I am not without a hope of entertaining my Readers with the eccentricities of this Fanatic.

London, March 1st. 1804.

I. B. E.

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