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are more numerous, and more bulky, than could be expected by those who reflect how feldom thofe excel in either, whom their education has qualified to compose books.

The admirer of Greek and Roman literature will meet, in this collection, with editions little known to the most inquifitive criticks, and which have escaped the obfervation of thofe whofe great employment has been the collation of copies; nor will he find only the most ancient editions of Fauftus, Jenfon, Spira, Sweynheim, and Pannartz, but the most accurate likewife and beautiful of Colinæus, the Junta, Plantin, Aldus, the Stephens, and Elzevir, with the commentaries and obfervations of the most learned editors.

Nor are they accompanied only with the illuftrations of those who have confined their attempts to particular writers, but of thofe likewife who have treated on any part of the Greek or Roman antiquities, their laws, their customs, their dress, their buildings, their wars, their revenues, or the rites and ceremonies of their worship, and those that have endeavoured to explain any of their authors from their ftatues or their coins.

Next to the ancients, thofe writers deferve to be mentioned, who, at the restoration of literature, imitated their language and their ftyle with fo great fuccefs, or who laboured with fo much induftry to make them understood: fuch were Philelphus and Politian, Scaliger and Buchanan, and the poets of the age of Leo the Tenth; these are likewife to be found in this library, together with the Delicia, or collections of all nations.

Painting

Painting is fo nearly allied to poetry, that it cannot be wondered that those who have fo much efteemed the one, have paid an equal regard to the other; and therefore it may be eafily imagined, that the collection of prints is numerous in an uncommon degree; but furely, the expectation of every man will be exceeded, when he is informed that there are more than forty thousand engraven from Raphael, Titian, Guido, the Carraches, and a thousand others by Nauteuil, Hollar, Collet, Edelinck, and Dorigny, and other engravers of equal reputation.

There is alfo a great collection of original drawings, of which three feem to deferve a particular mention; the first exhibits a reprefentation of the infide of St. Peter's church at Rome; the fecond, of that of St. John Lateran; and the third, of the high altar of St. Ignatius; all painted with the utmost accuracy, in their proper colours.

As the value of this great collection may be conceived from this account, however imperfect, as the variety of fubjects muft engage the curiofity of men of different ftudies, inclinations, and employments, it may be thought of very little ufe to mention any flighter advantages, or to dwell on the decorations and embellishments which the generofity of the proprietors has bestowed upon it; yet, fince the compiler of the Thuanian catalogue thought not even that fpecies of elegance below his obfervation, it may not be improper to obferve, that the Harleian library, perhaps, excels all others, not more in the number and excellence, than in the fplendor of its volumes.

We

We may now furely be allowed to hope, that our catalogue will not be thought unworthy of the publick curiofity; that it will be purchased as a record of this great collection, and preferved as one of the memorials of learning.

The patrons of literature will forgive the purchafer of this library, if he prefumes to affert fome claim to their protection and encouragement, as he may have been inftrumental in continuing to this nation the advantage of it. The fale of Voffius's collection into a foreign country, is, to this day, regretted by men of letters; and if this effort for the prevention of another lofs of the fame kind fhould be disadvantageous to him, no man will hereafter willingly rifque his fortune in the cause of learning.

A N

ESSAY

ON THE

ORIGIN AND IMPORTANCE

O F

SMALL TRACTS AND FUGITIVE PIECES.

Written for the INTRODUCTION to the

HARLEIAN MISCELLANY.

HOUGH the fcheme of the following mif

TH

cellany is fo obvious, that the title alone is fufficient to explain it; and though feveral collections have been formerly attempted upon plans, as to the method, very little, but, as to the capacity and execution, very different from ours; we, being poffeffed of the greateft variety for fuch a work, hope for a more general reception than those confined schemes had the fortune to meet with; and, therefore, think it not wholly unneceffary to explain our intentions, to difplay the treasure of materials out of which this mifcellany is to be compiled, and to exhibit a general idea of the pieces which we intend to infert in it.

There is, perhaps, no nation in which it is fo neceffary, as in our own, to affemble, from time

ΤΟ

to time, the fmall tracts and fugitive pieces, which are occafionally published: for, befides the general fubjects of enquiry, which are cultivated by us, in common with every other learned nation, our conftitution in church and ftate naturally gives birth to a multitude of performances, which would either not have been written, or could not have been made publick in any other place.

The form of our government, which gives every man, that has leifure, or curiofity, or vanity, the right of enquiring into the propriety of publick measures, and, by confequence, obliges thofe who are intrufted with the adminiftration of national affairs, to give an account of their conduct to almost every man who demands it, may be reafonably imagined to have occafioned innumerable pamphlets, which would never have appeared under arbitrary governments, where every man lulls himfelf in indolence under calamities, of which he cannot promote the redrefs, or thinks it prudent to conceal the uneafinefs, of which he cannot complain without danger.

The multiplicity of religious fects tolerated among us, of which every one has found opponents and vindicators, is another fource of unexhaustible publication, almoft peculiar to ourselves; for controverfies cannot be long continued, nor frequently revived, where an inquifitor has a right to fhut up the difputants in dungeons; or where filence can be imposed on either party, by the refufal of a li

cence.

Not that it fhould be inferred from hence, that political or religious controverfies are the only pro

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ducts

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